Training Update

What beautiful weather! The cold, snow, ice and rain of the winter are quickly fading now, to be replaced with glorious sunshine and warm weather.

Did 90 miles last Sunday. And for the first time I did a figuure of eight route, so I stopped at home half way round for a cup of tea and snack. Why the hell didn't I do that in the winter?!! Ok so it was hard getting home knowing I had to go out again, but equally the fact I was refuelled in comfort made a big difference. What a difference it would have made to do that in the winter, allowing a change of lcothes and warmth before going out again. Oh well!

This weekend was back to back 60s. Actually 65 miles on Saturday, 60 on Sunday. Interestingly, Saturday was a slog whilst Sunday (despite being out at a dinner party on Saturday night and drinking too much) felt like I was flying! Slightly sore knee at the end but I was going pretty quick so that's to be expected. I had my small commute into work this morning with no ill effects.

Only 3 more significant rides before Paris...

Nigel's Training Lore #10.
If you can design a figure of eight route it allows you to stop off at home half way round your ride which particularly in winter means you can warm up, change and go out again refuelled. It also means you're closer to home if you encounter any problems.

I did it!

7hrs45. 124 miles. A long old way. But I have managed to cycle from my mothers all the way home! The last 20 miles or so was a real slog and I need to rethink the idea of using a rucsac as my back was very sore, but overall, I got back in much better condition than last week after my 104 miler. So, that's the peak of my training. It's all downhill from here! Hopefully that doesn't mean silly injuries or other problems start here. 5 weeks training to go, including a couple of back to back weekends, and then the main event...

Before the off...

Yellow rape fields along the way

On the way to another milestone

Over the last 7 or so months, the key objective has been Cambridge to Paris in about a month's time. In addition though, I have also had another target on the way- to cycle from my mother's house back home. A distance of around 120 miles. I am writing this (partly to check I can blog on the move ready for Paris!) Halfway home, somewhere near Oundle in Northants. It's a nice sunny day if a little windy and so far, so good. Legs are a little tired but hey, it's not meant to be easy! More later...
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X marks the spot. Pt IV.

Finally, we reach the Labour party. As for the Conservatives previously, I should declare previous interactions with the Labour Party, having met the Health Minister Ann Keen MP and also attended a meeting of the Prime Ministers Strategy group.

That said, I received nothing from my local Labour candidate. I also contacted Ann Keen. I initially received an automated response requiring my full contact details etc. I then got another one that informed me

Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

I received nothing - says it all, doesn't it?! Then, on 14 April (a full month after my email) I received a response from the Dept. Health. Helpfully, this response included the sentence

As you may know, the Department of Health is part of the Civil Service and does not represent any political party.

For information on the future policies of a party, you may wish to contact the party concerned.

Well that's useful - I thought I had done! So, no response from the Labour Party then. For what it's worth, the DoH response informed me that the Neonatal Taskforce has recently published its findings, and also pointed that that the BAPM (British Association for Perinatal Medicine) standards are recommendations not mandatory. So that's a get out of jail free card then!
Very disappointing.
So, what do we conclude from the responses received? They can be summarised as follows...

Green Party
Responded
Committed to 1:1 Care
Committed to better support for families

Liberal Democrats
Responded
Implied support for all of Bliss' manifesto points
Have signed up to support Bliss Manifesto

Conservatives
Responded
Previous good communication with party
No specific commitments

Labour
Didn't respond
Previous good communication with party
No specific commitments
Have signed up to support Bliss Manifesto

At the end of the day, there are many issues that you have to consider when deciding where to put your 'X'. Based on this (admittedly limited) survey however, your choices may be slightly more limited now...

Finally, a reminder that you can contact you local candidates to get their views on the Bliss Manifesto here.

X marks the spot. Pt III.

So, on to the Conservatives. I received a letter from our sitting MP, Sir Alan Haselhurst. Straight off, I should say that Sir Alan has been a great supporter of us since before our son came out of home, contacting various MPs and senior NHS staff on behalf and attending both the Bliss events at the House of Commons that we have attended. His response to my email was as follows (again, edited for brevity by myself)...

• To improve neonatal care the Conservatives will make sure that spending on maternity services keeps pace with birth rate
• They will provide mothers with more information on the performance of maternity care providers
• Tariff payments (funding to hospitals) will be based on performance, including reduction in perinatal mortality and mothers' positive experiences
• Realistically Sir Alan recognised that he cannot pledge to support all causes due to the current budget deficit (but stated he would do his best on this particular cause)

So what is to be made of this? From a personal point of view I accept his pledge to continue to support neonatal care as I have observed in the past. In terms of specifics however, I am not sure that the points made will be that helpful. Firstly, keeping pace with the birth rate surely maintains the status quo (a charge I also levelled at the Liberals here), which as we all know is currently not good enough. Further, as the rate of premature births increases, funding based on birth rate will actually result in a drop in real terms in funding for neonatal care. In addition, whilst funding based on a reduction in mortality on the face of it sounds like a good thing, I wonder whether this may penalise those specialist units developing pioneering treatments on the very smallest or sickest of babies.

Coming up, the Labour party...

World Exclusive: Drowned Rat Cycles 100 Miles!!!

What a day. It was torrential rain overnight (sufficient for us to have a power cut in the early hours) and was still pretty bad when I hit the road a little before 6.30am. It got worse and proceeded to rain for the entire trip of nearly 7 hours. I got a bit lost so called it a day before my original end point, but used a Tesco store as my turn around point. This allowed for hot chocolate, cake, a change of clothes and purchase of clean dry socks and carrier bags!
It's amazing how much rain and wind takes out of you and despite this being only 7 miles further than last week, I came back a wreck and with a sore hip. Hopefully a few days rest will sort that and I'll be ready for a good ride later in the week.
Going 100 miles is a landmark in its own right, but in addition, except for next week which is a bit different (I'm cycling home from my mothers, again around 100 miles or so) this represents the furthest I'll be going in training. It's scary to think I'm cycling to Paris next month!

A landmark! (104.26 miles)

X marks the spot. Pt two and a half

Not quite the next candidate reply (I'll hopefully post that tomorrow), but a plea for support. In the last few days before election day, please help Bliss by getting your candidates to pledge support for the Bliss Baby Manifesto. In particular, By 2020 we want to see:

• One to one nursing for all babies in intensive care
• Access to round the clock specialist transport services in all areas
• Better support for the families of special care babies

Please sign up here.

Training Update

It's been a while since I posted an update, but fortunately I have continued to grind out the miles throughout that time. Two weeks ago I made it down to Maldon and back (86 miles) which was nice going out but a real slog coming back. I made the mistake of a long stretch along the A414. Not the prettiest, quietest, flattest or pot-hole-less-est road in Britain! Still, Maldon was a nice destination...

Essex Sunrise...

Artistic shot of Maldon :o)

That was followed by a 97 miler last weekend (up through Ely, Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill). I managed to pace this quite well and wasn't exactly fresh when I got back but felt better than I did the week before!

Finally this weekend I did back to back 50 milers and I'm sore but happy as I write this! It's not long since I cycled 50 miles for the first time, so doing back to back 50s is quite an achievement :o)

Also delighted to say that sponsorship has now gone through the £1500 mark. Next stop, two grand!

I have an enforced rest week this week as I am travelling but this might not be such a bad thing, with a 100 miler planned for next weekend...

Nigel's Training Lore #9.
A training program is a guide not a rulebook. Enforced rest and 'listening to your body' will help to give your body the rest it needs. But at the same time don't use that as an excuse!

X marks the spot. Pt II.

So, the Liberal Democrats achieved the largest change in poll rating in UK polling history, and Gord' and Cam went from agreeing with Nick to agreeing with each other and opposing Nick. But what would have happened if neonatal services got more coverage in the election? As I explained in the previous blog entry, I have written to several representatives of the political parties both nationally and locally to find out. This time, the response of the Liberal Democrats...

• The party believes in the need to safeguard NHS services and especially the specialist services such as neo natal care, which are at greater threat of cuts / reduction in services.
  
• In addition to local services, the party also recognises the need for regional/ national centres of excellence to provide care for the sickest babies.
• My local candidate stated that he strongly supported the very simple aims of Bliss and would campaign in Parliament to promote their views.

So, a less full response than the Greens, but this was a local response rather than national (Note: Nick Clegg also mentioned neonatal care in the first televised debate). Despite the shorter response however, it is interesting to see the mention of specialist centres. It feels like maintenance of the status quo rather than improvement and again no mention of funding. It is good to see promotion of Bliss within Parliament however.

Survival Rates

There's an interesting piece of research just been published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood and reported on the BBC website looking at survival rates of very preemie babies. The research indicates that despite greater medical intervention and slightly longer survival time, the actual survival rates for babies born before 24 weeks has stayed essentially the same. For these pre-24 weekers, 20% survive, often with disabilities, and this despite increased levels of resuscitation and other interventions. This is in contrast to those born at 24 and 25 weeks where survival rates are continuing to increase.

Clearly this findings are important and interesting from a medical point of view. Equally they will no doubt be used in the abortion/pro-life politicking debate, the gestation times discussed coming as they do right around the abortion limit. Does this mean that we have reached the limit of what medicine can do for the most premature babies? That their organs simply cannot cope despite the very best medical care? Possibly. But my view is that such sweeping statements are dangerous certainly for policy making. As Andy Cole, Chief Executive of Bliss said in response to the work,

it is always important that these babies' treatment and care options are considered on an individual basis

In our experience of having a 26 weeker, we certainly had the ups and downs in his first few months but ultimately we have been incredibly lucky and he is surpassing our expectations (and moved into his own bed at the weekend!). At the same time, we saw the other side when parents of longer gestation (and even term) babies experienced complications and difficulties they never dreamt would affect their babies. They are truly individual little beings!