It's Here! Vic's Big Walk, The Book

In 2010 I walked almost 2,000 kms, at the age of 70, to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research. You gave me great support and my blog seemed to keep many people entertained. There were demands for a book. Now that book is available.

The title of the book is the same as this blog, "Vic's Big Walk". It is now available as a paperback as well as an e-book. The paperback is available at Amazon.

The e-book is available on all major platforms such as Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Sony, Kobo and others.  Just search on any of those for "Vic's Big Walk" or "Vic Heaney".

Join me in reliving my great adventure. And feel good about it - all proceeds are going to help conquer pancreatic cancer.

The price of the e-book varies a little from supplier to supplier, but is less than the cost of two cups of coffee. The price has been kept low to encourage wide readership and to help fundraising. DON'T FORGET - ALL THE PROCEEDS DO NOT COME TO ME - THEY GO DIRECT TO PANCREATIC CANCER RESEARCH.

The paperback is also moderately priced and, as with the e-book, all proceeds go direct to pancreatic cancer research.

Get your copy now, live the walk with me, and help to beat the appalling scourge which is pancreatic cancer. And please pass this information on to all your friends. E-mail them, tweet them and rattle their Facebook cages.

Illustrations for the book are online. You can view them by double-clicking here

STOP PRESS on 12 September 2012

My new book "Living In The Real Cyprus" will be out in a matter days as an e-book and as a paperback but will not be available on Amazon until 6 to 8 weeks later. Contact me if you want to know more.

Kindle

Today is my 71st birthday, and therefore the first anniversary of the finish of Vic's Big Walk. I had hoped that the Kindle version of the eponymous book (like the walk, to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research) would be available from today but is not. My own fault - I didn't give the publishers time to get that done. They have a laid down schedule and I gave them the data after the due date but I hoped that it would still get done,

It will surely be up and running within the next few days.

You will be the first to know.

New Eye Treatment

Some potentially exciting news for me. I have mentioned that I have an incurable eye problem called pattern dystrophy, which means that I am in the process of completely losing my central vision. It is already making life difficult for me, and did so during the big walk.

Well, maybe it is not so incurable. My daughter Nicola texted me from Italy that a friend of hers had been in touch. The friend's father is a surgeon and he has come up with some news about a treatment which is being trialled in Pisa. This possibly involves the use of stem cells. I know that miraculous results have been achieved by injecting stem cells into the eyes of mice but this is the first I have heard of the procedure being used with humans.

I am awaiting more information about how successful the Pisa procedures are, and when and whether they will become more widely available. And I know that the use of stem cells is highly controversial.

Watch (no pun intended) this space.

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On a different subject, the book is imminent. Again, watch this space.

Coming Soon, By Popular Demand - The Book OF The Walk

This time last year I was approaching the end of my 70 day walk, also the end of a 3-year project which had me walking 17.5 Million steps.

Thousands of people read, and apparently enjoyed, my blog. There were many suggestions that I should publish the blog as a book. I have done much more than that. The blog contained maybe a couple of hundred words per day. But also each day I was dictating a couple of thousand words of notes for a potential book. I transcribed them each evening.

The walk finished on 23rd July 2010, my 70th birthday. Well, it is almost the first anniversary of that event and I hope that on that same date this year, Vic's Big Walk - the book will be available for purchase. Every penny of the proceeds will go direct for research into a cure for pancreatic cancer, the same cause I was walking for last year.

Here is a sneak preview of the cover, designed by my good friend Peter Labrow, of Labrow Marketing.

Free Guitar Lessons

There is no con here. The lessons really are free. I have used some of them myself. Mike and his friend Jerry are very good teachers and give away an amazing amount of free lessons. There are some you can buy as well, if you want to, but the free lessons will get you a long way and cover a lot of tunes.

Perhaps this is why Mike has 180,000 subscribers worldwide.

Vic's Big Walk - The Book

Unable to walk much at the moment because of injury, I have taken the opportunity to paint the shutters on the house. They now look magnificent. I'm glad about that because it was a big job. First they have to be removed. This involves a man, who will be 71 years old in a few weeks, climbing through the window from the inside, sitting on the window sill with feet beneath the shutter to take the weight, lifting it at arms length, heaving it back through the window to Gay. Well, that didn't work, they were stuck, so I had to get friend Colin to come and remove them for me. Colin used to be a steeplejack and, using a ladder, had all the shutters removed within about 20 minutes.

Next step was to strip the shutters back to bare wood because I wanted to remove not only the old varnish but the dark stain which the builders, who renovated our house, applied to the shutters without asking if we wanted it. Then three coats of good varnish. 18 shutters in all.

The shutters were then refitted by the "sitting in the window" method. I was ably assisted in this by Gay and my youngest daughter Nicola, who was visiting from Iddly with wee Alessandro. I don't think I will be doing the shutters this way again - I must be much less supple than last time I did it - the main difficulty being getting back inside the window again. And next time the need comes round, I will be 74.

My other main task at the moment - which can be illustrated by the same picture if you imagine it as evocative of a writer in the garret - is getting the book about my walk ready for publication. I hope to have the e-version of this available for Kindle, Sony E-reader, Barnes and Noble Nook, and iPad, in time for the anniversary of Vic's Big Walk - in other words, my birthday on 23rd July.

Pancreatic Cancer - Searching For A Breakthrough

We are, of course, constantly scouring the world to bring you news of developments in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which is ultimately what this blog is about.

Our Edmonton correspondent, Margaret Gregson, has sent me an interesting item from the Edmonton Journal. It is about research being conducted locally into finding protein markers in the bodies of patients, markers which would enable treatment to be more closely tailored to the individual, reduce suffering and hopefully extend lives.

You can read the item by double-clicking here

This is a fine example of efforts going on all over the world to get on top of this appalling illness. If you have known a sufferer from pancreatic cancer, you will understand the need to find a cure or an effective treatment. Don't forget you can help by clicking on the "donate" button on this page.