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Gkam84 needs a trike to ride and help him deal with early Parkinson's - he's 28 FFS

Completely by chance I clicked on Gkan84's sig, wondering what it was about.

Turns out he (Keith) is suffering early onset Parkinson's and is after money to buy himself a recumbent trike so he can keep riding. He's 28.

By the look of it he's only had his fundme page open for a short while. I suspect he's being polite and not putting a direct link to it himself on the forum just yet?!

He's chosen a nice trike to aim for:
http://www.icetrikes.co/explore-our-trikes/sprint#

So, first of all wouldn't hurt to give the Keith a little money would it? I've started the pot with a measly tenner, but I figure there's quite a few of us here for whom a tenner represents just about nothing, so... it's paypal so use a bit of your 'bike fund' like I did!

Secondly maybe we can find a way of getting something similar second hand or for a discount somewhere?

http://www.gofundme.com/Gkam84

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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113 comments

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Depends what of...

I do like the sound of the drawing as well actually, but can just wait until all is revealed anyway.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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From Richards email

"It will either be one of my cycling legends portraits or something that's appeared in Rouleur magazine"

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jogler | 11 years ago
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Hello Gkam

I havean ICE Trice which I am considering selling for approx £1800 & delivery.
It's actuall my wife's trike which has had very little use in the 4 or 5years she has owned it due to orthopeadic problems
FYI I am near Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire.
If this is of interst let me know & I can email details & pics to you

Regards
jogler

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Check your email, I messaged you earlier when you posted on my other thread to find out more information.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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So you lovely bunch, If you have twitter, I'd love it if you could post this daily??

Quote:

Spare a tweet per day? Make your tweet count! Donate one tweet a day to help me get back cycling http://www.gofundme.com/Gkam84 @Gkam84

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Marauder | 11 years ago
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No smartphone for me  20
I am hope Santa is going to bring one soon  4

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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You don't need a smart phone to tweet  1

I don't own a mobile phone anymore since mine packed up in the summer  26

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Saintyl | 11 years ago
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Just put a bit in the fund, fingers crossed you get to your target soon and back out on the roads  3

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paulfg42 | 11 years ago
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It just told me I couldn't pay!

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notfastenough replied to Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Gkam84 wrote:

Another tick to the donation of items box.....James Nash BTCC 2011 Independent Champion

Also happens to be my favourite driver since John Clelland, Kieth O'Dor and David Leslie circa 1991 (got my first VHS of them racing)  19

Used to really enjoy BTCC. Aiello, Leslie in the Nissans, and Rikard Rydell in the Volvo, with Matt Neil gatecrashing as a privateer.

I met Paul O'Neil a couple of times through a mutual friend. We got to go to the end-of-season party at Donington Park (think this was in 2003 or 2004 - he was driving a Vauxhall Astra works car). Rumours were already flying that Paul wasn't getting a contract for the following season, he got leathered and somehow his undies ended up hanging off a power cable that was strung overhead while he was still wearing trousers...

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Just posted an update and tweeted this at a few people. Will hit some pro's up later. But off for my weekly check up with the Dr  2

Could you maybe take a look at my latest update and point me in the right direction if you know anyone? http://www.gofundme.com/Gkam84

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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just watched the vid - it's cool, I'd love to ride that little route, then stop for a snack by the river! Looks great.

I figured that the 'negativity' would be something like what you said, but you only need to read replies to high-profile tweeters or comments on news stories to see that there are too many evolutionary throwbacks that shouldn't be allowed near an internet connection. Sod em.

I'm not lucky enough to know any pro's though! I'd love a framed/signed rainbow jersey one day, but god knows what that might cost...

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Well i'll see if I can get anything from a pro, but know it will be hard as its not for a charity, just for a cause. I am going to tweet it out there and see. Maybe I will try some of the paralympic cyclist's. Jody Cundy and other's retweeted me. So that might be an option.

Then hold a silent/online auction for Road.cc members, their friend and family, as I'd rather someone who would like it, over some random on ebay.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Well today's twitter spamming went something like this

Quote:

Do you think your team might be able to help my appeal with a donate of something for auction? http://www.gofundme.com/Gkam84

Within minute's I've already had replies and direct messages from BMC and Orica Greenedge asking me to email their office's.  4

Fingers crossed now. Just have to write out a nice email to them

Col Coldeportes are on board and are willing to donate something  13

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mikecassie | 11 years ago
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Just donated to gkam, got to help the lad. Shite news what has happened and hope he gets the trike.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Mike, WOW  13 thank you so much for your donation and also, welcomeish to the site with your fourth post  3

Some really nice roads out Rothie way, I used to go out that way via Daviot, out to Rothie and back to Aberdeen via Meldrum.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Well guys, just thinking about bed again.

There really are some special people in this world. 5 days and sitting just over 28% of the goal.

Suggestion's would be welcome, if I was to get any item's donated, how should I sell them? So obviously there is here but not an auction, so would have to set a price. I don't like that idea because I might want to much or whatever.

There is ebay, but that opens it up to all the world, when I'd really like it to go to cyclists for here.

If I got a few things, I thought about putting together a wee website and having some sort of silent auction style bidding process.

The final one would be a raffle, every £5 that's donated gets you a ticket. So if you donated £10, you would get two tickets and so on. If I get a few item's. That might be a good idea, chuck you all in a bucket and film the drawing?

Thoughts on this?

Cheers for today  4

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Well if you wanted a silent auction, you could just invite private messages with the bids in. Post a copy of the winning bid.

However, personally I think I like the raffle idea. I think it would also possibly raise more, since I don't have enough (a few hundred £ for an average pro's jersey? Even more?) to spare on a winning bid, but I'd drop £20 on a few tickets. Recession/christmas and all that, I reckon I wouldn't be the only one.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Yeah I thought that might get people's interest more and be able to keep it as something for those who donate.

Only other team I've had a reply from, Endura Racing, asked me to email someone and I got an out of office reply  4

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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FIRST team that's going to send me something......

BMC Racing  4

Just been getting email addresses for others who didn't reply to my tweet and will fire them off  26

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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If anyone has a spare moment, could they help me to track down some email address's

I am currently looking for

Euskaltel
FDJ
Liquigas/Cannondale
Lotto - Belisol
Omega Pharma
Rabobank
Saxo Bank
Sky
Vacansoleil

Going to their website's hasn't helped, they have a generic form to fill in, but some only allow 200 characters.  2

Off to start on the Continental teams. I might need to work on a strategy to have an auction, but also raffle some via the funding set up??  39

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dave atkinson | 11 years ago
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We've got a signed ben swift bottle from the tour of norway. you can have that  1

plus a bunch of other stuff, no doubt. we'll do a trawl.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Cheers Dave that would be fantastic,

I'll just have to work out what to do, because I don't know how to structure an auction, raffle or whatever It may be. Dependant on the volume of things I receive. I'll have to think it through.

Just got an amazing email back from Team Colombia Coldeportes

Quote:

Dear Keith,

my name is David Evangelista, Press Officer of Team Colombia. I am also the one who replied to your tweet.
I am very impressed by your story, and I will be happy to check what we can do to give a contribution to your auction. Do consider that all of our riders are in Colombia at the moment, but I will ask whether there is any piece of apparel that we can send you. I would rather have sent you something autographed, but I will have the guys on hand in January only.
Look out for an update for us in some days!

Hang in there! I am sure you will collect a lot of support from the cycling world!

Kind regards

David Evangelista
Press Officer

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Comrade | 11 years ago
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Gkam - I wish you all the best with your efforts. At the moment I have a bike for sale and shall make a contribution after that. (I can't help straight away because I have computer/ internet issues.)

I tend to lurk on this site more than I write but can I just say thanks for all the posts you write as I do find a lot of them useful!

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Thank you Comrade.

Glad you came out of lurk mode and that you like some of my posts. I try to be as useful as possible  3

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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36% raised by 45 people in 7 days. This is just stunned me to the core. I always had faith that people might be willing to help me a little. But this much, in 7 days has really moved me.

When I started out with this effort. I really just put the site up, into my signature and sent out a couple of tweets. Since alotronic began this thread. The tips, suggestions and donation's have been amazing.

Thanks to all of you from the bottom of my heart. Today I will be hitting twitter again to get through the list I have left to tweet about maybe donating an item to my intended auction. Still working out how to do it, but its coming along and keeping some items back to raffle  3

Hope people have a nice Sunday and get out for a ride or a swim down the high street in some cases. Stay safe though  4

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Might have a nice collectors item for the auction  3

A jersey from James McCallum of Rapha Condor Sharp  26

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Ok so far for donation items I have

BMC Racing Team
Team Colombia Coldeportes
Endura Racing
James McCallum (Rapha Condor Sharp)
Yanto Barker (Uk Youth)
Hayden Roulston (RSNT)

Do you have any contacts that might be willing to get involved? Now is the time to call in favours and twist arm's  3

I'm off to email major retailers, without hoping to much as I know they don't often do charitable donation's, unless its for a charity they are involved with  39

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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That's a great list. Before you go calling in any more favours, I'd see how much that lot raises first!

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Steven_L | 11 years ago
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