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7 7 70
What does this mean?
Well, it means Seven ‘Challenges’ in Seven Continents after the age of Seventy: and on August 28th 2006, I (Harry Townsend) reached my 70th birthday.
We’ve already set up a Research Laboratory and provided essential equipment.
Now we want to raise £250,000) a) to fund practical research b) to arouse awareness c) to make easy diagnosis more readily available (e.g. free walk-in clinics)
I intend to complete these Seven major Challenges now that I'm Seventy: obviously, I can't look for sponsorship for each event in one year(otherwise, you risk Sponsorship Fatigue). So I'm concentrating on one of the Seven for sponsorship each year: and in 2007, it will be The Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, probably in September 2007
I'll add a brief report at the foot of this page about each Challenge as I complete them
These are my Challenges
Grand Canyon rim to rim (North America)
Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (South America)
100kms del Sahara (Africa)
North Pole Marathon (Arctic)
Alice Springs to Ayers Rock pushing a wheelbarrow (Australasia) Three Peaks (Europe) Mount Fuji (Asia)
I’d like to have added an eighth, the Antarctic Marathon in the shadow of the Patriot Hills in Antarctica, which took place in December 2006, but the entry fee for this plus travel was about £10,000 and out of my league!
We hope that individuals and organisations within these countries will not merely help, but get involved to raise money for melanoma research within their own countries. USA for the Grand Canyon trek, for instance; Japan for Mount Fuji: Australia for Alice Springs to Ayers Rock.
BIG TARGET I’m aiming to beat the record for Most Sponsors for One Event for One Person, which currently stands at 10,000, set up by Dave Campos when he beat the World Absolute Speed Record on his motorbike in 1990.
I failed to do this with my New Zealand walk, as I ‘only’ got 7,600 sponsors, but Hey!, look on the bright side, that’s 7,600 people who donated money ($25,000 in New Zealand plus £6,000 in Britain) and who probably didn’t know about melanoma and the Charity before. What’s more, it was the catalyst for the formation of the Melanoma Foundation of New Zealand, www.melanoma.co.nz
Please download a Sponsor Form and take it round everybody you know: clubs, friends and work colleagues, relations, organisations.
Please get them to make a donation and sign the form.
It doesn’t need to be a large sum: anything from 1p to- well, £10,000 plus!
Remember the numbers: 7 7 70, 10,001 and £250,000.
They’ll be recorded on the website like a ‘thermometer’: keep the mercury rising fast!
Two (or three? or more?) completed forms are even better: and please return them to the Myfanwy Townsend Melanoma Research Fund, 6 Manor Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 1LR Tel. 01342 322508 townsendharry@btinternet.com
Cheques should be made out to the Myfanwy Townsend Melanoma Research Fund.
Sponsorship can be donated at any time before the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim: the exact date will be announced at the end of January, when a Sponsor Form can be downloaded) You'll be able to follow my progress on the website, because I'll be keeping a diary on the website.
If you want our leaflets, please ask: I’ll be happy to provide them.
The important thing is to get people involved and aware: we hope that you’ll direct them to our website so that they’ll find out why we’re doing what we are.
WE ALSO NEED PUBLICITY AND SPONSORSHIP TO BACK UP 7 7 70.
If you have any contacts at all in the media (national, regional or local: television, press or radio) or with decision makers within major (especially multinational) companies or organisations, we’re desperate for your help.
Bottom line: we need a major sponsor and I can promise mega media exposure.
Finding a cure for this terrible disease, of which the incidence is doubling every ten years in Britain, and which is now one of the Diseases of the 21st century, is essential.
Melanoma kills.
Remember the six ‘bullet points’:
MELANOMA IS THE FASTEST SPREADING CANCER IN THE WORLD
IT’S DEADLY: THERE IS NO GUARANTEED CURE
IF NOT DIAGNOSED EARLY, 66% WILL DIE WITHIN FIVE YEARS
SUFFERERS CAN ONLY EVER BE ‘IN REMISSION’
THE INCIDENCE IS DOUBLING EVERY TEN YEARS
BY 2010, 1 IN 50 WILL GET MELANOMA IN THEIR LIFETIME
7 7 70
has a nice ring about it: and, being spread over more than a year, the potential for publicity and support for a long time will be there.
We need massive media publicity to attract support and backing: and we hope that 7 7 70 will do this!
Help us to reach 10,001 and £250,000
Watch this space!
100 km del Sahara Race 98 of us (93 runners and 5 walkers) set off from Chinini deep in the Tunisian Sahara on March 5th 2007 for the 24km first stage, the first 8km over steep rocky hills, to our Berber tents at Garat Eddouiri. Support from the organisers Zitoway Sport and Adventure ( www.100kmdelsahara.com ) was fantastic: they provide accomodation, meals and back-up vehicles, even camels to accompany the backmarkers (me!). All we had to do was to run (or walk, in my case!) However, first came a short 18km stage to Camp Laaraj, and even this was hard: after the steep rocky climbs and switchbacks in 40C+, there were miles of stony tracks. It's far from being a walk in the park! Next day was a shorter stage, a mere 18kms, and once again in searing 40C+: but this was balanced by a cool 7km night stage (when temperatures drop to about 12C and you have to wear a woolly hat in your sleeping bags, with runners lighting their way with headtorches and their progress tracked by glowsticks tucked down the back of their shorts. After a late meal, came an early start next day for the marathon 42.195km to Aouinet Essbat: fortunately, the temperature had dropped to a more manageable 35C+! This stage sorted out the men from the boys (or, more accurately, from the ladies of whom there were 22). Runners were still battling their way home after almost ten hours. Next day came the final 28km stage to the oasis at Ksar Ghilane , a tourist resort with the berber tents provided with brick walls and a raised sleeping platform. This was a good thing, as a sandstorm had already forced a slight amendment to the route whilst this was followed by a torrential rainstorm that raged for more than a day! The first rain like this for five years, we were told! The awards ceremony was a wonderful get together for the runners: Joerg Balle, from Germany (from the same six person tent as myself) was the winner, whilst I was very privileged to receive one of four Special Awards, a beautiful 'Desert Rose' (don't worry, it's not a flower, but a naturally occurring gypsum and sand 'sculpture' from the Tunisian desert, which I will always treasure). Don't know why I received it, though! Then back to Djerba on the landcruisers, splashing through deep water between the sand dunes that threw sandy water back over the windscreens and completely obscured the view of the driver. It was a wonderful experience that I wouldn't have missed: fantastic comanions, each providing mutual support and encouragement: and do you know, in the entire week I never heard a siongle moan or grumble. Thank you, everybody, runners and support group, and organisers, for an unforgettable week. I got home at 0145 on the Sunday after flights from Djerba and Rome: I'll lie awake dreaming about it all for weeks!
Harry Townsend