Walking, advocacy and kilts 12

PUTTING IN THE MILES AND MINUTES

In the two weeks since my last update I've done another couple of practice walks and have, post-Fringe, started to get back into more advocacy work again.  Only just a bit more than two weeks until the walk itself, and the emails from the Kiltwalk organisers are getting more frequent.  Today's confirmed this will be the biggest event they've held in Edinburgh to date, with well over five thousand walkers taking part (that's a lot of tartan).  And the entertainment at the finish line will be provided by The Red Hot Chilli Pipers.  Another incentive, for me at least, to get over the line as soon as I can.

The first of those two walks was also the furthest distance i've attempted.  Starting at the Fountainbridge Basin I walked along the Union Canal (I mean along the pathway alongside, I'm not the messiah) to Winchburgh, a little short of sixteen miles or around twenty five and half kilometres.  Four hours and eleven minutes.  Easy because it's all flat of course, and I felt fine afterwards.  Nice route to walk with ever changing scenery, human and bird activity on the canal, and a sense (for a city boy) of being in the middle of nowhere. 

This week I sought out the start point for the walk proper out in Musselburgh, down on a windy and cloudy seafront, and followed much of the route I'll be doing then, stopping at Silverknowes.  About ten and a half miles, seventeen kilometres, in two and threequarter hours.  Which bodes well for being able to do the full distance in under four hours.  Walking into a high wind towards Gypsy Brae did threaten to expose more of me than the public might be ready for - yes, I was kilted, and will be for the remaining practice walks and, of course, the real thing on the fifteenth.  Not sure if anyone on a Kiltwalk has been charged with indecent exposure yet?

The number of advocacy appointments I've managed to do recently has been hindered by no shows.  An appointment is made, you turn up at the office and wait.  And wait.  And someone calls the person and gets no response or finds out they have forgotten and that leaves me to have a chat with whoever is around and then head back home.  Occupational hazard.  We often work with people who live very chaotic lives, who aren't able to remember things easily, who sometimes get confused.  It's nobody's fault, but can be very frustrating.  Less so for myself, who only lives a ten minute walk away from the office, but much more so for volunteers who've travelled half way across the city for that one appointment.  C'est la vie.

Of those I did see the most interesting was another PIP assessment, another unnecessarily stressful experience for someone whose life is already a bit shit.  The man I was with has suffered chronic depression for over twenty years.  It's manageable with drugs, but he has very little quality of life.  So it's not much help when the nurse doing the assessment is clearly well versed in physical health matters, and far less so when it comes to mental health.  He got his point across eventually, but it was far harder than it should have been.  The welfare system remains very poor at recognising just how debilitating mental illness can be. 

It must be even worse for people who have to go through that experience without having anyone along to back them up, give them support.  Which is why, once again, I'm asking, if you managed to read this far, to donate something to my fundraising efforts please.  Advocard makes a difference.

You can click on this link to find my donations page.

Walking, advocacy and kilts 11 (with added tartan)

REAL KILTWALKING

I haven't written one of these posts for a while, mostly because they were getting to be boringly repetitive.  In the intervening weeks I've had four more walks, a couple of interesting advocacy appointments (fewer than usual with the Fringe being in town this month!) and an email from Kiltwalk that has meant a slight rethink to my planned target.  Plus my training regime is getting help from mechanical failure...

Three of the walks took the same route I've done before, from home to the tram stop at Murrayfield Stadium, and that seems to have become my default 'short route'.  It's good as it's mostly away from roads, follows the second part of the actual route I'll be doing on the day, and has a lengthy slope to climb.  Each time I've managed to improve my time by a minute.  Today, as the photo above suggests, I finally got the kilt out and wore that for the walk.  No unexpected chafing, and it was good to feel the breeze round my nethers.

Last week's walk took the Water of Leith path again, from Balerno to Leith.  And showed an improvement of ten minutes over my previous effort.  Three hours and thirteen minutes to cover about twelve and a quarter miles.  Last year the same walk usually got close to the four hour mark, so maybe I am a bit fitter this year?

That ties in with the news from Kiltwalk.  They've moved the starting point forward, deeper into Musselburgh, so the total distance is now only fourteen and half miles.  That makes a lot of sense.  Last year the start line was only a hundred metres from a busy road to be crossed, then went into a single file section that caused a big bottleneck.  This time the start is on a wider expanse, allowing people to find their own pace more quickly.  But it does mean that my stated aim to complete the course in four and quarter hours is now meaningless.  However that slight reduction in the distance to be covered, and the time I managed down the river last week, has me wondering if completing the walk in under four hours will be possible?  So now my target - wind, rain, hail, snow and injuries permitting - is to beat four hours.  Who'll give me extra money for the cause if I do it?

Speaking of which....

With little more than a month to go it's about time I started pestering people for cash.  Who's going to be first to donate?  Click on this sentence for the link to the donations page.

By way of incentive here's a bit about one of my recent experiences doing advocacy work.  I was asked to accompany a woman to her Universal Credit assessment.  She came from one a war torn country in Africa, and, although she spoke very good English, she was clearly very worried about the process.  We met a few days before, and I took her through the kinds of information she might be asked to provide.  It's an awkward situation, having to ask someone you've never met before for extremely personal information, and it never ceases to amaze me that people are willing to do so despite only meeting me ten minutes before.  I always like to ensure I've asked someone all the worst questions they might face.  Better to be prepared in this less stressful situation than to have it sprung on them during an interview that will do much to determine the quality of their lives.

But, for once, the assessment process itself proved less difficult than usual, largely down to a sympathetic and intelligent assessor.  He concentrated on asking all about her physical disabilities (severe back pain meant she walked with crutches, and chronic incontinence is a constant worry for her), reckoning they were more than enough to demonstrate to the DWP that she was incapable of working.  That spared her having to discuss her mental health issues, and we were out in about thirty minutes (most assessments seem to go on for more than an hour).  So all credit to this particular assessor.  I wish they were all like that.

As we left she still thanked me profusely, despite my having had very little to do during the assessment.  I think it's just having someone there who's on your side that seems to make a big difference to people, especially those who have difficulties expressing themselves or react badly to stressful situations.  Advocacy works.  So give us your money!

PS  I mentioned mechanical failure had proved to be a help to my walking preparations.  We live on the fifth floor.  The lift has been out of action for about three weeks now, and they can't get the necessary brake part.  It looks like we may need a new lift, but we'll be lucky to have it by Xmas.  Doing all those stairs a few times each day must be having some fitness benefits, eh?  Even it is very slow progress.  (This news may make anyone considering visiting us want to reconsider for a while!)