The kindness of strangers...

Throughout the organisation of the CCCBC row to London one thing I've been struck by is the willingness of people to help out! Yes, there have been plenty of occasions when multi-million pound corporations have refused to offer just one of their products, or the media has been disinterested on the basis of my unwillingness to display shocking photos of my former self, but for every one of those occasions there has been a moment of joy when someone has given up their time or resources to help our cause.

For that reason, we as a crew would really like to thank the following people for their ongoing help and support. Have a flick through and you'll be amazed at the selflessness of these people, many of whom have never met us...

Nick Watts selflessly offered his services as a highly accomplished PR manager to help spread the word about our event.

 Stitch Rowing have provided us with bespoke kit including unisuits, fleeces, caps and trackies.

 Carl Morris designed our fantastic logo for the event and is also cycling the whole way with us to ensure our safety.

Fuller's pubs have kindly given us £300 to help with the cost of transporting the boat back and hiring a suitable support vehicle. They are also holding a launch event at the Head of the River in Oxford and a finish event at The Dove in Hammersmith. Their logo is printed on our kit as official sponsors.

The Food Doctor not only invited us to London for a nutirtion consultation to help us get the most out of our training, but also sent a hamper of balanced, nutritious snacks for us to take with us.

The Stafford branch of the Soroptimist society gave us £50 which will be used to fuel the support vehicle.

Bounce sent us some great protein balls to help repair our muscles after each day.

Maxitone gave us some Promax high-protein fruit drinks.

Nuun gave us 60% off their yummy products to help us hydrate in training.

Additionally:
- Absolute Sports Nutrition: SiS 'Go' Electrolyte powder
- Martin Mottershead butchers: BBQ for one meal
- Stafford Motorhomes: reduced hire of our support vehicle

Without all of these people the event would not have turned into the success we are now hoping it will be, and we are truly humbled by and grateful for everything they have done!

180km. 4 days. PAIN!

    About a year ago I had a crazy idea. That is, crazier than my usual ideas…

         I had been volunteering for Beat for a couple of years but had recently increased my awareness/media work, and so decided it was about time I dabbled in the fundraising aspect to my Young Ambassador role. Simple, right? But the problem with having an anorexic personality is that I’m a perfectionist: I didn’t want to do something easy; I wanted to step outside my comfort zone, push myself to the limits and do something which had never been done before.

        That was when it dawned on me. Rowing had been the main factor in helping me maintain my recovery at uni – due to the need for good nutrition to build physical strength in order to succeed – so it seemed fitting to combine the two. As a small club, we didn’t have the resources to cross the channel or row around the British coast, but I realised we could plausibly row 180km down the Thames from Oxford to London, which no all-female crew has attempted before! I suggested it to the rest of my crew, fully expecting it to be taken as just another of my wild ideas, but was pleasantly surprised when they all immediately replied saying they would love to! I’m still not sure whether that was the start of something great, or bad news because it meant that from that point on there was no turning back.

The squad taking part.

        Rowing is a really good way to meet people in other year groups and also form a really close friendship group – seeing each other at 6am every morning on the river means you inevitably become attached to each other. This close bond and camaraderie has equipped us well for the gruelling training schedule we have had to undergo in preparation for the event because it has enabled everyone to support each other through the pain of icy mornings on the water, hours at a time spent on the rowing machines and murderous circuit sessions. Our closeness is also the thing which we will be relying on most during the journey to keep us motivated and upbeat throughout, despite the inevitable excruciating muscle ache and horrific weeping palm blisters.

        The theme for Eating Disorder Awareness Week this year was ‘Everybody knows somebody’ – a phrase which has really rung true in discussing individual crew members’ reasons for taking part. As I discovered when we were asked to give a crew interview, nearly every one of them has been exposed to eating disorders either personally, or through family and friends! Francesca (20) summed up her motivation, saying:

“Watching my sister fight her ED means I have not been shielded from the real difficulties sufferers face - not just in their minds, but also from the stigma society holds against them. Every painful training session seems worth it if it can help to fight for better treatment for sufferers of EDs.”

        With a matter of days to go before the launch, we are all quickly becoming a complex mixture of excited and terrified, and so would really appreciate any support we can get – be it financial or in cheers from the river bank along the way (get in touch at esther.rich@ccc.ox.ac.uk if you’d like to know the timings).

If you’d like to help make our pain worthwhile, support us at: www.justgiving.com/londonrow

    Anyone in the London area is also very welcome to come to our finish party at ‘The Dove’ on Hammersmith Bridge – 3.30pm on Wednesday 26^th June.

'Mess'

‘We’re putting on a play. It’s about anorexia – but don’t let that put you off!’

        On Saturday night I dragged my boyfriend along the 50minute tube journey across London to Battersea Arts Centre to see a play called ‘Mess’, written by the hugely talented Caroline Horton. I didn’t know a huge amount about the play – simply that it was about anorexia and had received great reviews – but since working with Beat, my default setting has been set to responding with an immediate “I’ll be there!” to anything referring to eating disorder awareness.

         The play opened to a collective guffaw at the hilarious entrance of Sistahl (played by Seiriol Davies), who served throughout the play to lighten the mood in order to get across a serious message whilst maintaining the audience’s enjoyment. The audience was then taken on a safari of emotions, from the heart-warming commitment of the main character, Josephine’s, friend (Hannah Boyde) in willing her to get better despite struggling to understand her affliction, to the painful struggle of Josephine herself fighting the pro-ana and pro-recovery voices in her head.

        The topic of anorexia, in fact mental health in general, is so often tainted with stigma to the extent that society shies away from discussing it. It was refreshing, therefore, to be presented with the stark reality of the life of an anorexic, which is more often than not kept hidden away behind a screen of normality. I believe that ‘Mess’ will have gone some way to helping those who saw it develop a better, and truer, understanding of eating disorders, and force them to challenge the stereotypical view of ‘why don’t they just eat?!’. 

        For me, however, it was 70 minutes in which I once again felt the camaraderie and solidarity of the shared experiences which I had not found to this extent since my own hospital treatment three years ago. The ‘in jokes’ surrounding GPs’ incompetence in the subject, therapists’ claims of ‘making progress’ without defining said progress and choice of a ‘Go Ahead’ bar over cake made me feel able to laugh at the topic without at all making light of it – a balance which I think is exceptionally hard to achieve but was done impeccably by Horton!

        My boyfriend’s only criticism was that he worried the ‘unfinished’ ending could risk undoing all his hard work in persuading me that full recovery is possible, but I absolutely loved the fact that Horton (or rather Josephine) refused to allow the play to end finitely! Yes, I agree with my boyfriend that giving a sufferer the mindset that recovery will never be complete is dangerous because it suggests it is OK for them to fall into the trap of acceptance rather than determination, but I saw ‘Mess’ as a way of raising awareness in those with little knowledge of eating disorders: not a way of treating those who suffer from them! Therefore it seemed apt to stress that the mental turmoil of an eating disorder does not stop when the patient is released from hospital – it takes far, far longer! Years after supposed recovery (in the eyes of the outside world) I am only now beginning to reach a point where anorexia is almost wiped out.

        All in all a perfect mix of humour and emotion which cut right to the heart of anorexia and portrayed the mindset incredibly believably. I can only hope that Horton and the company bring ‘Mess’ back for another tour so that I can send everyone I know to go and see it! 

For more info, go to: http://www.carolinehorton.net/