Goodbye Chappie and a few thank yous

I’ll be saying a temporary farewell to my buggy, Chappie, later today as he begins the long journey to the British Embassy in Belgrade on the back of a lorry. Regular followers will remember that Chappie is the short name for the Chapman Ventilation Around The World Buggy.

Chapman Ventilation, who have backed me over 3 stages of the run around the world so far, very kindly paid for all production costs of Chappie. A huge thank you to them for helping to turn a pipe dream of running the remaining 11,000 miles around the world unsupported into a reality. Chapman Ventilation already do so much for good causes and I'm eternally grateful to them for their continued support. 

I'll be reunited with Chappie in Belgrade on the afternoon of June 1st. I'll be flying out from Newcastle Airport a little earlier at 0600. I'll also be joined by Carlton Fletcher who was on the support team on stages 2 (USA), 3 (Australia) and 4 (Europe) of the run around the world. Carlton is going to help me with the final prep in Belgrade and will be running the first few miles with me on June 4th before heading back to the UK. Thanks to Carlton for his unwavering support of my running.  

Thanks also go to the many people who have sent me messages of support via email or via social media. It's brilliant to know that there continues to be a lot of interest in my running.

I’ve been asked many times recently how I feel about running 2900 miles unsupported from Serbia to Kazakhstan. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe. It a mixture of excitement, determination and pride. There are no nerves yet and I think it’s really helped that I’ve broken the run down in my mind into so many small sections. I will quite literally be taking it one mile at a time never mind one day at a time.

Thank you to the individuals who have been in touch with offers of help along the route. I've been following up on these and it looks like I'll have a place to stay in Kiev on my rest days and also some school visits to carry out in Ukraine. There are other leads to chase up in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Thanks to Synergy Language Services for translating my leaflet into Russian. This leaflet (and also the English version) was designed by Dave at Shenton Creative and is being printed by Communisis in partnership with PBL Print and Photoline.

The leaflet is going to be my main method of communication on the Road to Astana. The tri-fold pages can be viewed online here and the poster foldout can be viewed here.

I'll leave the final words to Catrina from St Benedict's Hospice who summed up to me last week exactly what they and the wider hospice movement is all about. Please take 60 seconds to watch it.