Daniel | Four Passion Killers

Surprise Visitor

At the start of the year Mum was worried that Daniel wasn’t eating enough food; he was eating less than Harry (which isn’t hard) but he was also eating less than Emilie too! On regular occasions Daniel was skipping breakfast, eating one sandwich for lunch and then not finishing his dinner.

Mum was worried because she felt that Daniel should be eating more due to the amount of rugby he plays and also because he was fast approaching the teenage growth years. Mum had expressed her concerns to some of her friends at work & that’s when one of her friends offered a solution.

How would Daniel like a visit from Matt Blythe, Warrington Wolves Centre? Mum jumped at the chance and so Matt came round to talk to Daniel about the importance of eating healthily especially if he wanted to continue playing rugby.

Over the following 6 months Daniel heeded the advice that Matt had given him and he started to eat more, no more breakfast dodging, elevenses, bigger packed lunches, afternoon tea on his return from school, dinner & supper. On some days Mum has commented that Daniel is now eating us out of house and home!

Matt had promised Daniel that if he made a real effort with his eating habits that he would come back & visit him again; and that’s what happened this evening.

Dad was tidying up in the kitchen & Mum was getting Harry ready for bed when the doorbell rang so they asked Daniel to answer the door (Mum & Dad knew who was ringing the bell!), the look on his face was a sight to behold when he saw that it was Matt stood at the door.

Daniel invited Matt in & they had a chat about how well Daniel was eating now; Matt also asked Daniel about his Moonwalk experience and told him he was very impressed as he could only walk about 2 miles never mind 26.2 miles!

Matt told Daniel he was really pleased that he was now eating more food and as a reward for doing so well he presented Daniel with a rugby ball signed by the Warrington Wolves team, the ball now has pride of place in Daniel’s bedroom and serves as a permanent reminder that he needs to eat healthily!

Lucy’s Christening

Today we made the trip down to Reading so that we could attend the christening of our cousin Lucy.

We left home at 9am and Dad drove down the motorways until we reached our destination; there’s no stopping when Dad is driving! We arrived at The Pheasant pub at 12 noon where we were met up with Grandad, Pauline, Auntie Carol, Uncle Harry, Auntie Jennifer, Uncle Mike, Amy & Callum for a spot of lunch before the big event. We had a delicious lunch & a play in the playground before it was time to head off to the church.

We congregated at the church where we were delighted to see our 2 cousins Joe & the very important Lucy; the Vicar appeared & asked us all to make our way into church ready for the service. We all took our place & then we had to wait for Uncle Graham, Auntie Carrie, Courtney, Jake, Luke & Bertie to arrive. The Vicar was very funny & told us all that when they arrived we all had to turn round & stare at them; which we did!

The service then started, it was a very nice service as the Vicar was very jolly. Harry wandered around the church and even tried to play the organ and when that failed he ran off with the organist’s glasses case!

We all felt very proud attending Lucy’s Christening as Daniel had been asked to be her Godfather and he took his responsibility very seriously.

When the service was over we all headed off to the rugby club where Uncle Michael used to play rugby, before his retirement this year. We had great fun at the rugby club playing football, bouncing on the bouncy castle & eating food (Harry).

Dan completes The Moonwalk!

At 8:17am yesterday morning I burst into tears as I crossed the finish line of The Moonwalk, the tears weren’t for me they were for Daniel as he had just completed the walk too! For those readers that don’t know about The Moonwalk it is a walk that takes place in London each year where 17,000 women (& a few men) walk 26.2 miles, a marathon, through the night to raise money for breast cancer charities.

Dan has wanted to take part in The Moonwalk since he was 5 years old in memory of his Nana. Last October the applications opened & I asked Dan if he would like to take part now that he was old enough to do it and he said “of course I do.”

We started training in January of this year and since then we have walked over 200 miles; just this training alone took huge commitment from Dan, with some training walks occuring after he had played a rugby match on a Sunday morning.

Yesterday evening finally saw the arrival of Dan’s challenge and he was full of confidence that he was going to be crossing the finishing line & collecting his medal on Sunday morning.

We left Hyde Park at 00:07 and as we left Nina Barough, the founder of Walk the Walk, spotted Dan and when she found out he was just 13 and was doing the walk she said “I am so proud of you for doing this, well done.” This spurred Dan on during the night as he kept asking “I’m going to make Nina prouder by finishing?”

The first 17 miles were a doddle for Dan and between miles 10 & 17 he took off by himself at a speed that neither I or Beverly could keep up with, we only caught up with him as he queued for a toilet break at The Royal Albert Hall. During this last third of the walk we walked past the Breakthrough Breast Cancer buildings where the name of Dan’s Nana is on a plaque – it was special for me to be able to show Dan this & I have to say I had to fight the tears back at this point.

From mile 19 onwards Dan started to struggle as his right ankle was starting to hurt, we slowed our pace and fuelled him with enery gel and jelly babies. The poor boy kept asking “are we nearly back at the park yet?” At mile 22 I really thought he was going to give up but thankfully a few fellow walkers saw he was hurting and gave him a huge confidence boost by telling him that he was amazing for doing the walk!

We reached the park around 7:30am and Dan got his second wind and he sped up, well sped up as much as you can after walking 24 miles. The last 1.2 miles seemed to go on for ever but with each step I could see the sense of acheivement growing in the face of my child.

We crossed the finish line at 8:17am and I immediately burst into tears – I was (and am) so VERY VERY VERY proud of what Dan achieved and I watched on with great pride as he received his finishers medal and a huge hug from the volunteer who told him “she was honoured to be giving him his medal.”

I hope Nina is proud of him too!

You can still donate to our fundraising pot too – simply click on the link below:

www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/BADmoonwalkers

An Afternoon with Hughie

This afternoon we were supposed to be going to Splashzone with Auntie Melissa, Uncle Simon & our cousin Hughie; unfortunately when we got to Splashzone it was full but firtunately it was sunny so we decided to go to Walton Gardens instead.

We like going to Walton Gardens as we can play in the park, play football, look at the animals in the zoo and have ice cream and this is exactly what we did this afternoon. We really enjoyed playing football and whilst the ball was being passed around Harry took Mum & Emilie for a ride on the train.

There was also a running race held – apparently Auntie Melissa (Personal Trainer) couldn’t race against Daniel as she didn’t have her trainers or sports bra on – we’ve heard all the excuses now! So instead Daniel had a race against Uncle Simon. Much to everyones amazement Uncle SImon beat Daniel by a nose length, but Auntie Melissa said this only happened because they raced downhill and therefore Uncle Simon had a weight advantage!

We ALL had fun playing in the park – Mum, Dad, Auntie Melissa and Uncle Simon particularly enjoyed playing on the horse!

We had a brilliant afternoon and can’t wait to spend more time with Auntie Melissa, Uncle Simon & Hughie!

Camping Boys

Following on from the abandoned camping on Saturday evening Joshua decided that he wanted to give it another try and so he asked Daniel if he wanted to camp out with him. Daniel said yes and so on Tuesday evening they camped in the back garden.

It was quite cold so to make sure they didn’t get cold in the night the boys had a double duvet to lie on, sleeping bags to sleep in and duvets to cover them. They retired into the back garden at 8pm with Dad’s iPad so that they could watch a film in the tent.

They appeared this morning just after 9am proclaiming they had had a brilliant time & that they hadn’t been cold at all.

We forsee many more back garden camping adventures this summer!

Rugby Tour to Dublin

This morning Mum took Dan to the rugby club as he is going away on a tour for the weekend with his rugby team – we hope he has lots of fun and doesn’t have too much Guiness!

Warrington v Lymm u13

Warrington played away against Lymm this morning.

Dan had a good match providing great support on the wing and doing some amazing runs which show why his nickname is “Rocket.”

He didn’t see much of the ball though as his team mates seem to have an aversion to using the left wing.

Warrington won 24 points to 5, another victory for the team.

Turkey dinner in March?!

This afternoon we went to Auntie Jennifer & Uncle Mike’s house to help them eat a rather late turkey that took up residence in their freezer in December.

We were joined their by Uncle Graham, Auntie Carrie and our 3 other cousins.

We had a great time playing, making lots of noise & demolishing the delicious dinner that Auntie Jennifer & Uncle Mike prepared.

Training Walk

We did another training walk for The Moonwalk we are doing in May to raise money for breast cancer charities.

We did 4 miles tonight in an hour so managed to maintain a good pace.

Mum & I are walking to Auntie Jennifer’s on Saturday which is 12 miles away – this will be the furthest I have walked.

Please sponsor me, Mum & Auntie Beverly every little helps!!

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/BADmoonwalkers

Moonwalk Training

As the weather was so nice when Mum got home from work we decided to do our Thursday evening training walk earlier than usual.

We took Harry & Holly with us and we managed to walk 3.88 miles in 1 hour and 2 minutes; this was slower than normal but we had to wait loads of times at crossings for all the traffic to clear – a downside of going out at rush hour.

Harry kept us entertained by pointing out all the cars & birds on our route and singing jingle bells to us!

We’ve got a rest this weekend but then on 10th March we are planning on walking 12 miles!

Ducati Shop

Dan went to the shop of his dreams today – the Ducati shop.

We drive past it on a regular basis and Dan always looks longingly through the windows.

Dan had a good look round and came out of the shop with a mug, sticker & numerous catalogues.

No bike yet but that will come!

Well Done Daniel

When Dan got home from school today this had been delivered by the postman.

It’s a postcard from his Head of House, it has the following message on the back:

Daniel
Congratulations on an excellent set of IOU’s. You have settled down to a good pattern in year 8 and I hope that you can continue with this fantastic hard work.
Miss T

Mum & Dad are very proud.

Blog Categories

Tagged: Daniel