rivers2cross

In Chapter 6 of The Record I met Jeanette Chippington, who won gold in Rio in 2016 in the KL1 200m Paracanoeing. I have met quite a few gold medal winners on my travels, but this was the only time I actually got to touch an Olympic gold medal.

I actually was fortunate enough to meet Jeanette on a couple of occasions. The first time was on a beautiful sunny and crisp winter morning when she was training at Dorney Lake, and then a few weeks later at Bisham Abbey where Jeanette was doing her gym training.

In the chapter we talked about her long and distinguished Olympic career that began in swimming before she took up canoeing. Her first record is a cracker. Jeanette spoke about how she became paralysed, and the challenges she faces being in a wheelchair, although she has not allowed that to stop her from making it to the very top.

Jeanette couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful, and definitely went the extra mile when she agreed to a second meeting bringing her gold medal from Rio with her. Jeanette lives locally to me, and there were lots of connections. She actually went to the same school in Maidenhead that both my mum and sister went to as well. Her first record is a brilliant single!

The Record was written in memory of my mum who died of bowel cancer in August 2016. All profits are donated to Bowel Cancer UK, and over £870 has been raised to date. I am hoping to reach £1000 during 2020. Click here to see all the ways to order a copy of the book.

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives in the UK, and is the second biggest cancer killer. However if caught early at stage 1 it is very treatable, and the five year survival rate is over 90%. When detected at the late stage 4 the five year survival rate drops dramatically to 7%. This shows how crucial early diagnosis is to getting a better outcome. Knowing the symptoms is so important.