Paul Murphy and I have been friends for as far back as I can remember. We liked the same music, mostly, but the one thing we always agreed on was bikes. We loved bikes, he was the first to get one, a Suzuki GP100 and I followed shortly afterward with a Kawasaki KE125 . we would ream of the day we would be able to travel by bike in the
Still all the time we talked about going riding in
In 1999 Paul had a near fatale accident while formula 1 Go-Karting. I will never forget the day when his sister rang me and told me that he was in hospital in England and he was being kept alive by machines and that if we wanted to say ‘good-bye’ that we had better get there quick. Needless to say my wife and I jumped on a plane to
As I approached the bed, he was lying with just a sheet over him, I suddenly started to grin, it was like a scene out of one of his favourite movies “The life of Brian”, any moment he was going to sit up and shout ‘Go away- I am not the Messiah’ but I knew he would not. I sat down beside him and took his hand and whispered in his ear “You can't die yet, you still owe me a pint” daft I know but it was all I could think of. His body jumped and leapt on the bed, The nurse rushed over and told me it was just muscle spasms and that it had nothing to do with anything I said to him. I walked out of the room and I knew……I knew they were wrong. I said he is going to be ok, they told me I had not really grasped the situation, but I did and to this day I can’t explain it but I knew that he would survive.
The next day they turned off the machines and Paul breathed on his own. His road to recovery has not been easy nor has it been quick and indeed it is not finished yet. Life moved on for us both, I was as proud as can be when I stood as his best man at his wedding to his beautiful wife. He had to give up his license and still cannot ride a bike but his interest in bikes never waivered. The sporty, his first Harley and then my first Harley is now back in his ownership, which I am building for him. He has put all the thought work in as to what type of style and what kind of things he wants done to it. There is a thread on it here somewhere but no more pictures will go up until it is finished, but trust me when I say that this sportster that started life as an 883 in 1989 will look nothing like any of it’s previous incarnations.
The dream of riding across in the US had gone to the back of my mind until Paul telephone me one day recently and said how would I like to do a charity ride in the states for Childline and Planet Rock Radio, the only drawback was that I would have to bring him pillion and of course I jumped at the chance. So this July we are going to ride in the PlanetRock/Childline –hands across the water run and fulfil the dream of biking together in the
To see photos of last year’s run follow this link; http://www.planetrock.com/photos/childline-rocks-hands-across-the-water-624177/
Now we need to raise at least STG£1000 for the charity Chilline which provides a free, confidential helpline for children in distress. We are not asking people to give a lot, Lord knows time are tough for everybody, just a little because a lot of little donations will make a one big one so please I would ask my fellow bikers, brothers and sisters if you can spare a bob or two then please donate here;
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=DynaDamage&isTeam=true
Please note that we, ourselves, pay the cost of all travel, accommodation, bike hire and associated costs of the trip. All your kind donations go directly to Childline.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and even if you don’t donate I hope you enjoyed reading it.
To any of the Cyclefish folk who live near where we are travelling as it is nearly the same route as last year, maybe we can hook up along the way in Canada (British Columbia &Alberta) and in the US(Montana & Idaho & Utah)
Again Thank you from myself Dyna and on behalf of Damage.
