Monday 25 February 2008

Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it



A huge thanks to Gillian Haworth and Debbie Leigh for the piece in today's Yorkshire Evening Post which, if you haven't seen it, can be accessed at: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Leeds-man39s-marathon-effort-to.3810389.jp

The story in the hard copy was accompanied by the same pic of Sebastian and I you see on this site.

However, last Wednesday I wrote that something funny had happened to me. Well it certainly did that afternoon when I went to the Leeds General Infirmary to meet Sharon Cheng and her collegues at the Children's Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF).

My good friend Gillian, the news editor, had very kindly booked a photographer just couple of hours earlier. Unfortunately, given the short notice, I turned up in a suit having come straight from work. When the photographer arrived he took one look at me and said hopefully, "I take it you've brought your running stuff." No was clearly the answer which meant we had to improvise.

To cut a long story short, I ended up swapping my shirt and tie for a CHSF Katie Bear tee shirt. And, to hide my suit trousers and black shiny shoes, was forced to climb inside a five-foot high greeting card and then duck out from the side in a "peek-a-boo" style every time the camera was pointed. In a second set of pics, Sharon joined the fray to hold my shoulders lovingly and give the impression I was being much more heroic in doing the marathon than I actually am. Throughout this 15 minute pantomime - which was going on in one of the main hospital corridors - we kept having to hold our poses to allow what seemed like countless perplexed visitors and patients (some of them looking none too well) to pass by.

I remember at the time recalling that episode of The Office in which David Brent dresses up in an ostrich outfit for a particularly cringeworthy photoshoot before being told by the snapper that he probably couldn't use the pictures anyway. And so it proved in our case too - through no fault of the YEP photographer, I hasten to add.

Before he left, I asked him to use my camera to take a simple pic of Sharon and I standing beside the card and you can see it above (as well as my suit trousers and shiny shoes).

On a slightly more serious note, it was obviously a great privilege to visit the CHSF. Sharon and her team do a magnificent job and, by sponsoring me, you can help them to do a lot more.

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