Paul's fundraising for Macmillan takes off

Hotelier Paul Whymant, Chairman of family-owned Tickton Grange Hotel, near Beverley has been overwhelmed by the support received during the first week of his two-month poetry and cycling challenge, during which he will pedal more than 1,500 miles and visit 35 cancer hospitals and centres all around the UK. Paul was diagnosed with bladder cancer 5 years ago, aged 60. Now, after years of treatment, he is cancer-free and determined to give something back to those who helped him recover.

Paul spent his “poorly days” reading and writing poetry and his “better days” riding his bike through the fresh air of the Yorkshire Wolds. Now he is combining the two interests to take one of his poems, “Red Leather Yellow Feather”, around the country.

Waved off by family, friends and staff from Tickton Grange on the May Day Bank Holiday, Paul visited hospitals in York, Harrogate, Leeds, Scunthorpe and Retford during the first week of what will be a two-month marathon on a route through Yorkshire, the Midlands, East Anglia, London, the South Coast, West Country, North West, North East and Scotland to deliver and read his poem at each of the hospitals.

Fellow hoteliers around the country have rallied to support his efforts by offering overnight accommodation and Paul says the help and messages of support he’s received so far have been “incredibly moving”.

Paul said: “For me, it was poetry which helped me in mind, body and spirit get through my illness. My words and the story behind my trek will hopefully encourage patients and their families to put pen to paper. For me, poetry is a release, freedom, contentment.  We can all write, no special skills are required, it’s simply a matter of putting your heart onto paper.  More people should try it, they will love it. Poems can be submitted to my website and an anthology of selected poems will be published with all proceeds going to Macmillan. I'm also raising money for Macmillan via my JustGiving page.”

Copies of Paul's poem on parchment paper, tied with a red leather ribbon and a yellow feather presentation are also being sold for £15 to swell the fund-raising total.

Next week Paul is visiting Mansfield, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton, Bedford and Huntingdon. 

To find out more or leave a donation visit http://www.apoemtoinspire.co.uk/help.html or https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Paul-Whymant