I just can’t believe Colin’s strength of character and the faithfulness of his mates.  They only got him to the Europa Cup in Amsterdam! And…….Chelsea  only went and won!!

Please don’t let me give the impression that I am a fan as I am definitely not,  but Colin is such a fanatic and has such a passion for Chelsea,  that if he showed the same for me, I would have had a dozen or more children instead of the five!!  So in many ways I’m glad the energy was re-directed.

Well, on Tuesday Tony, Bootsy and Steve Hargreaves were dutifully gathered in a circle while I gave them all orders  on Colin’s medication, thinking that if one forgot the others would remember.  I showed them the injections with further instructions about where to inject.  All three looked wide-eyed and glanced nervously at each other willing someone to come forward and volunteer to play nurse.  As there was no response from the trio at this point….

So I picked Tony.

I have since found out that Colin administered the injections himself but well done anyway Tony for not objecting when you were nominated! Ha Ha!!

Colin has not told me too much about the actual trip, but then, he never does anyway.  From what I can gather, though, he only had two near misses.  Firstly, when his foot became trapped between a train and the platform and,  secondly,  when he tried to stand up to catch a camera another fan had thrown him so he could take a picture from his better vantage point, only to take a tumble six feet down a parapet! I am sure that in due time there will be more tales to tell but I’m really pleased Colin had a good time and that, barring death, he would never have missed this game or any other that Chelsea played and he could get to.

As you are aware, Colin was in the Hospice for twelve days recently.  He still managed to get to two games while he was an in-patient and for the last one, was delivered back to the nurses at 1a.m.  One of the staff asked him if he had enjoyed the match and he replied “What match?”  I thought to myself then that I could save a lot of worry and hand-wringing by telling him he had attended when indeed, I had him tucked up in bed and suitably sedated!

The fundraising is going very well. Many lovely ladies and I had a wonderful time last Saturday at Faye’s Racing Day. There were about forty women and ten teenage girls (who were too young to bet, of course) but we easily beat the boys with well under a third of the attendees, by raising over a thousand pounds!

Both my daughters and my daughter-out-law attended Vicky’s fundraiser last Thursday evening which too was highly successful. This despite being on a weeknight and a “Drum and Bass” event aimed at young Mums, who of course need all the money they have for their young families.  £345 is a brilliant total so sincere thanks to both V icky Witherick and Faye Tracey for putting in such a fantastic effort for the cause.  As well as all this activity, Shirley and John King have donated another £47.50 from donations in their pub and Michael Edwards, Colin’s brother in law, has donated £25 collected from his office at British Aerospace. Many thanks for all that generosity, goodwill and organisation.

Finally, news of another event next Bank Holiday Sunday 26^th May, when Brett Healey is undergoing the torture of a sponsored waxing.  This will be at The Cock Hotel in Hitchin and will be preceded by  fantastic  music from , “Rance’s Rocking Chair Band” (back by popular demand)  from 2pm-5pm, then the waxing will happen at 5pm……ouch!!!!  Added to all this there is to be a BBQ sponsored by Kenhursts. So get yourselves down there folks and have a truly great time in aid of a brilliant cause!!