Tourettes Awareness Challenge Day 7 : Gloucester – Oxford – Hereford – Worcester

Day 7: Gloucester – Oxford – Hereford – Worcester One week into our Challenge, and we were all well rested after a very comfortable night in the Holiday Inn, Gloucester. Throughout our travels, hotel staff have been really interested in what we are doing and in finding out more about Tourettes. We have discovered a number who know quite a lot already about the disorder. It’s been great. After lots of driving on Day 6, and in anticipation of a heavy day visiting six cities on Day 8, Day 7 was relatively relaxed, and the sunshine and pretty countryside made it even more so. We had a leisurely start, making a short hop into the city of Gloucester and our meeting point in front of the very ornate Cathedral.

Tourettes Action Trustee Peter Holmes joined us- with the greeting “You’re all mad!” and a big hug. After fifteen minutes hanging around the Cathedral Peter went in search of the Lord Mayor, but Cllr Chris Chatterton finally arrived at 10.20, and we had a nice chat and a quick photo shoot before an equally quick walk back to the Tourettesmobile where Peter waved us off on our journey to Oxford. En route Eileen had a phone call from Penhale Round Pub in Truro. “What have I left behind?” she thought. But in fact she had won a huge chocolate cake in the “Guess the weight of the cake” competition the pub were having. As it was in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, of course we’d all had a go. A wee bit far to go back for it – though it would have been very welcome with a cuppa! – so Eileen donated it to the next child with disabilities coming into the pub.

Oxford City Council had made excellent arrangements for us to park conveniently next to the Town Hall, where Lord Mayor Dee Sinclair was waiting to meet us. We were also joined by Hayley, Richard, Spencer & Lewis, and Dave, Rebecca and Nathan – all local families affected by Tourettes.

Spencer is the star in the recent BBC Inside Out programme about TS. After an excellent meeting with the Lord Mayor, who undertook to disseminate information and issue a press release, we all trooped off to the nearest McDonalds for a bite to eat and a chat. Donna’s family from Oxford also joined us so we were a huge and noisy party. It was fantastic to meet everyone and catch up. After hugs all round and Liz ensuring that the children had autographed our book about Oxford that the Lord Mayor had given us, we drove across to Hereford near the Welsh border. The rolling countryside was superb in the sunshine, and we really enjoyed our visit to Aylstone Park, where we met Mayor Councillor Phil Edwards and his lovely Mayoress.

Councillor Edwards represents the City on the County Council too, so once again we have been guaranteed full dissemination of our Information Packs to staff on the front line, which is very pleasing. The Mayoral party saw us off with waves and thumbs up, as we all-too-soon headed back to Worcester.

We’ve never seen so many swans on a river! We met the Deputy Mayor Paul Denham and his wife, Deputy Mayoress Cllr Lynn Denham on the riverside walk by the Cathedral. Many locals were out enjoying the late afternoon sun – and clearly the swans were used to being very well fed. Mayor Denham gave us some excellent ideas about potential links with Worcester University – a great deal to chew over that evening. Speaking of chewing, discussions in the car on the way to our hotel in Bromsgrove were all about Sunday dinners and what we fancied to eat. On the way we passed another reminder of home – a sign saying “To The North”. That was it. We absolutely HAD to find a pub that served a full Sunday dinner. The Crown in Bromsgrove fitted the bill, and we enjoyed superb beef dinners – and four very delicious and fattening puddings. Clean plates all round. Aah! We were very satisfied indeed with Day 7 – in every possible way. Sunshine, scenery, supporters and Sunday dinners. We are well rested for our big day tomorrow in the large cities of the Midlands.