[Music]
and if you like having money here which
everyone but some of us have it
some of us don’t so a lot of it those
have very little of it some of us have
so much that we don’t know what to do
with it and some of us have so there’s
all that was great means together penny
spit food on our plates
these girls have absolutely none of it a
lot of them of em because their parents
don’t have enough money to feed them so
they’ve come to this organization to
help for help and I found this
organization online I decided to cycle
7,000 kilometers and then I found this
organization and I met with the founder
Phil and he told me this story about
these two girls and these two girls came
to this organization in the morning and
they had breakfast they just cough it
down and they went away and they paid
and they were called in for lunch and
they were but lunch no yeah you know
you’re supposed to eat three times a day
and they were like no we every other day
and so they couldn’t quite grasp the
fact that they were supposed to eat
three times a day it’s when it got to
like time for cookies and milk before
their dining room to heaven and the ones
that heard that story I said I don’t I
want to understand what it’s like to be
them I want to understand what it’s like
to go through that experience of not
having money not knowing if your food is
going to come today or tomorrow whether
you’re gonna have a bed tonight or
whether you’re not so I decided to do
this journey we are any money and it
lasted me 164 days and I didn’t spend
any money in that time now I want you to
try and empathize with me and them as
well so if you could all close your eyes
for me
now I want you to imagine a time that
you are really really hungry and that
could be this morning because you
breakfast that could be last week
because you’re on a diet but I want you
to imagine that real hunger feeling now
I want you to imagine the fact that
there is no bed up home for you there is
no food in the fridge for you there’s no
money in your pocket to go and buy food
now open your eyes that was an example
of day 16 lastingly our journey lasting
me 164 days and I forgot to add in there
that I’m at 3,000 meters above altitude
and I’m pushing a bike up the Andes I’ve
been pushing this bike for about four
days
I hadn’t had dinner I hadn’t had lunch
my stomach was cramping and it was
raining when I started planning this
expedition I sought the help of some
professionals in this industry and ran a
fine we gradually became a passion of
the expedition and he taught me that it
was in his opinion far too great a risk
and I spoke to the RGS and they said and
the what I was doing was morally
unacceptable and obviously there’s
always people when you’ve proposed an
idea that you want to do a dream there’s
always people saying no you can’t do it
it’s impossible you can’t live five
months without money you’re going to
need money for food you’re gonna need
money for for shelter and x y&z so
instead of listening to them I went on a
journey so I started in Ecuador and I
was playing I’m stuck in Colombia but my
husband went crazy he was that know this
there was danger above orono second a
fine i’ll starting an Ecuador since I
started Ecuador across the Andes to the
Army’s going across them again to the to
the coast Crispin against Bolivia went
through the salt flats high altitude
deserts went through Paraguay and the
pampas in Argentina so all in all that
was about 7,000 kilometers and at the
start I was averaging about seven to
fifteen kilometers a day because I was
so hungry but by the end I was doing
just over one hundred and thirty seven
hundred and forty was my daily which is
about 6070 miles a day and I started
before I left I thought you know what
I’m gonna do some weight training so I
waited and awaited
now wait a bit more and it wasn’t really
getting any fitter that bike oh good
idea
I wear about 64 kilos so not the
lightest but that bike weight nearly a
hundred kilos so when I got on that
fight because I hadn’t done any weight
training not the right kind anyway I got
on the bike and I kept I took me about
three days for my muscles to learn how
to ride a bike with that much weight I
kept falling off and having to put my
foot down and I’m so scared going
downhill because it would go too fast
and I couldn’t control it so the first
few days I was like down these super
lightweight panniers they’re not very
super light weight I am just do too many
heavy things inside them to make them
lightweight anymore
so if anyone’s planning on doing it a
cycling expedition pack your stuff stick
half of it out take off of it out again
then you might be around via the right
kilogram market so when I went to the
only for the first time I just thought
learn how to ride my bike but it was
such a difficult time for me no one was
giving me any food I couldn’t really
find shelter it was constantly raining
and I found myself constantly looking at
my feet just pushing this bike up the
mountain and it wasn’t a case of you
know getting through the day it was a
case of getting through the minute
getting through the hour as a result
getting through the day I could not look
at the journey in its entirety it I just
wanted to quit and then one day one day
I was pushing the bike up this mountain
looking down at my feet the past four
houses behind me had rejected me and
they said no they wouldn’t give me food
or shelter it was about three four
o’clock in the afternoon I was wet and I
was hungry and I remember getting to
this house and it was on my left and I
just burst into tears I was so drained
and this bike fell to the floor I put it
on the floor I dropped it to the floor
and I fell to my knees and I sat on the
road crying my eyes out and show the
person who cycled first with me he went
across the road to ask the lady if she’d
help us and I looked at her it’s here
streaming down my face and she looked
back at me and she made eye contact
and she shook her finger and I was like
it was like obviously the clearest know
that she could make but it was in her
complete right to say no no one had to
help us but I had to pick up my bike and
keep pushing there was no one else that
was going to help me there was no car
that would come pick me up there was no
shop that with I could buy food up I
literally just had to pick up his bike
and keep pushing and that’s just what we
have to do in life we just have to keep
picking the bike up and keep moving the
race were barbaric absolutely barbaric
that’s how much it rained we had to push
these bikes up hills like this and
cleaning I’m enjoying myself so um how
you’re a write-off good time every now
and then we find this amazing camping
spot to set up camp and we find dry wood
and we like cook some plain rice and
you’re not hungry plain rice tastes
really good damn good and I’d sit in the
tone with my full little belly and I’d
look out at the view and just going to
know what I’m in a bloody good place
this the views are incredible but when I
was in such a dark spiral when anyone’s
in the dark about it it can be really
difficult to look up and appreciate the
view around you but it should have been
a really other uh it should have been a
really happy day but the past three
weeks of the Ecuadorian Andes has
scarred me so much inside that I thought
Christ priests double the distance it’s
gonna be the same I have to cross the
Andes twice so all of my experience had
told me that this trip was gonna be
awful it was going to be terrible I
should be scared because that was my
past experience
go to the Amazon and the Peruvian people
started giving me loads of food sir of
course like there was food in front of
me and I just stopped it in my face I
turn into the two little pork I’ve got
so much weight in the Andes and my
fiancée came to visit me for a couple
of weeks he went oh no it’s like you
don’t know the half of it um but there
are amazing things there were these
tranchida’s purple tarantulas the size
of like my hand facing there were these
electric blue butterflies that were just
floating by and snakes everywhere in
these amazing streams that I would bathe
in every night and if I was hot during
the day I just dive into a river and
cool off and and it was flat and there
was food and it was flat so I was happy
as Larry this is an example of some of
the food that I was finding and eating
along the way to I’d see fruit is almost
a bit of a luxury so I’d be a bit scared
to ask for it unless it was mango it’s
falling off someone’s trees but the
Bolivian but all of the South Americans
really have this tendency to just throw
rubbish out of their car and there would
just be so much food on the side of the
road so I’d be looking at all the time
and I was cycling and it would still be
in its wrappers in like biscuits and
loads of fruit would fall off the back
of cartons so albeit I did have to like
wash some ants off the watermelon and I
probably ate quite a few in the process
but it’s just extra protein um and also
I found all of the guavas were awful I
kept picking off the trees biting them
looking down and having maggots like
just ink maggots in them and I’m like oh
no I’m not that hungry and I found them
tennis but I found a box of 64 cans of
tuna and that was my protein source for
pretty much the entire way it was the
tuna that have bones and stuff in it so
it wasn’t the nicest tuna but it was
tuna and I became quite possessive of
food as well and so I turned 23 I’m 23
now and I turned 23 um along this
journey and I was so worried my birthday
wasn’t going to be an enjoyable one and
no one would take me in and I would just
be alone and feeling awful but this
family took me in the day before my
birthday and they asked me if I’d like
to stay with
people I was cycling with and obviously
of course I was like yes yes take me
take me
and I remember bathing in the in the
stream with day like teenage daughters
that having fun and this guy here who
names comment we still text now shorts
to come to England and I made some
really lovely friendships and I only did
I have so much fun with them on my
birthday birthday cake like never in my
wildest dreams did I imagine that
someone would buy me a birthday cake so
I went upon my birthday and Carmen and
one of her sisters when it disappeared
they came back in the afternoon okay
like how beautiful is the human race so
at this point I made it to the
Ecuadorian Andes I’ve made it through
improve the Andes twice and Cho the
person looks like maybe first got hit by
minivans had to go home I then got
attacked my fiancee that came to talk
with me for a month got sideswiped by a
truck so he had to go home nephew don’t
cycle with me cuz so son benched it like
little swollen grape and not tenían
pill and half of her skin off with her
and she still got like this scar and her
leg permits it I’m starting to think I
had with people cycling with me but at
this point my elder sister my oldest is
declared recycling with me and I don’t
know if Paraguay was such a turning
point for me because I have my sister
with me so we can start my long and
seeing Disney songs and laugh and have
Fanta or whether it was the fact that I
knew had no more Andes ahead of me you
know that I cycled nearly three times
the height of Everest I went up Everest
almost three times yeah and then but I
hit Paraguay I know one of the
negativity from Ecuador and all of me
feeling like a burden on society like no
one wanted me like everyone just wanted
me to go away it disappeared in Paraguay
everyone was Tooting but not like that
get out of the way twos like that do
type twos and they weren’t like smiling
and they were laughing and they were
giving me thumbs up and it just made me
so happy inside to know that I wasn’t a
bird
people weren’t seeing me coming going Oh
God have heard about this one and the
people were so kind of then um and I
finally got ice cream you don’t know how
many times I saw children with ice cream
and I just wanted a hit let me take your
ice cream run off if it means dang it’s
the truth and I cycle pasties and
garages and petrol stations and then
have the little the fridge freezers with
all the ice creams in and I’m like um
because I couldn’t buy them and I wanted
them so bad and it took me nearly four
months but I got my ice cream it got it
and it’s big and it was yummy this
lady’s cool Adelaide she’s one of 12
children of an American families that
moved from America to Paraguay and they
were such Saints they were so lovely and
they took us in and yeah really really
lovely family and again in Paraguay me
and my sister were cycling along and we
were coming to his son John which is
where my sister there she was had she
was going home and my other sister was
coming that there was like a five day
period of waiting and I’m like oh God
because you can’t I can’t just check
into a hotel I just I have to find
somewhere to stay whether that’s just
camping on the side of the road that I’m
like how am I gonna find food because I
can’t bake from the same places over and
over again so I have to keep moving on a
daily basis sort of basically piss
anyone off by asking too much um but
these guys just stopped throwing me on
the side of the road and they asked if
you’re okay and they gave us some water
and they gave us some homemade biscuits
that her mom had just made and then you
know we all stood by the side of the
road and they took our hands and we did
this prayer circle and they prayed for
us and they said that once we reached a
sign see on we were more than welcome to
stay with them and then throw us a big
barbecue aside oh and we have all this
like food to me my sister like and in
truth we got to a selfie on and I found
McDonald’s Thank You free Wi-Fi like
shared my location and within 20 minutes
their friends joy they came and picked
us up in her pickup and then she hosted
me for five days whilst my sister went
and my other sister came and she took us
to a supermarket with um she took us to
a supermarket and she went you can have
whatever you want
pick it up and I’ll buy it – wait look
I’ve not had an option of what I wanted
to eat in four months and over four
months to someone telling me pick what
you want I’ll buy it for you I didn’t
know how to cope and still when I got
back to England myself and my husband
went to a supermarket and then I had to
get home I pretend there was a new bacon
for five minutes but I stopped crying
and then I went every time y’all get
feels like because they were just this
embarrassment for me because I could I
was so overwhelmed with the fact that I
had these choices again so yeah I didn’t
realize that I’d be so scarred by
supermarkets so I finally got to the
organization that I’ve been cycling
towards in cycling towards and that’s
not other sister day of her time
beautiful lady that she is and the crazy
thing is that the Navy in stripes that’s
the wife of the other person that runs
the place that helps found this and her
first time died at the age of nine from
leukemia which is why they start this
organization to help children and I’m
fortunate our second son now at the age
of 22 has got leukemia as well and he’s
not on his best legs um but they still
pour every day every day they poured
that heart into this organization
looking and caring for these girls
so they’re one of my biggest
inspirations the fact that these girls
can go through what they’ve gone through
and still run around and playing with me
and my sister like they’re just an
after-school Club
and I remember being in the back garden
and in a child the fence lawyer coming
into the driveway and two of the girls
shining up and say hi excuse us we’ve
got to go in for a meeting now
and it was quite shocking for me because
they just went oh okay you’re not here
for an after school
you are here for a reason um so I hope
to continue trying to raise money for
them and awareness for them and I asked
each and every individual not every
individual got a lot of them if they’re
like living now and they all said yes I
know and then I asked obviously well why
and they said because we get to learn
and it was like because it’s always
shocking when children come back and say
the one thing that they enjoy most in
life is learning and having an education
and being able to study because a lot I
think a lot of children in our country
they’re like I don’t want to do this
these girls the reason that they love
being there so much was because they got
to study and I went from crying on a
daily basis to smiling and laughing on a
daily basis that number they’re roughly
translated translates to six days of
cycling so it’s pretty damn shoved um
and it was when I started trying to
understand the whole law of attraction I
don’t know people any of you know this
one law of attraction but at the start I
was putting out such a negative feeling
and I was in this whole downward spiral
and all I was getting was negativity
that’s what I was putting out that’s
what I was getting back and near at the
end all I was feeling was positivity and
laughter and happiness and they got to
the point where I had to tell people to
stop giving me food I didn’t have to ask
any more people to stop giving me food
because they kept trying to give me food
um and this chap here you can see the
distance me and my sister were like
smiling and laughing and just having a
good time in the bikes and he stopped
and said you know you guys have got a
really good onler which is wave in
Spanish and he stayed and he came and
found us and gave us these little
presents with a math take up which is an
Argentinian drink and of omneya which is
the straw that you drink out of um and
thank you very much I’m still filming
because I film the whole thing and then
we went off inside food and then in the
evenings is happened in the morning and
evening he came and found us they said I
really want to like there’s just a
village just slightly further on I mean
there’s a Cabana house there and I’ll
pay for a room for you there was like
it was just incredible um so he paid for
a room for us and gave us presents so
that’s when I recited wonder and ponder
by this whole law of attraction and this
is just an interesting fact because I
found nothing there now I start sipping
my coffee one morning like cockroach so
if you want to go on adventures just be
willing that you might get cockroaches
in your mouth it’s funny looking that
with the photos the first lot of me
being quite sad my voice looking away
into the distance and like pulling funny
faces to mask the fact that are not
really having that much fun
and all the photos nearing the end there
is me smiling and laughing and having
such a good time and looking back on
them I’m so thankful that I persevered
through those hard times because I got
to the best time at the end and if I had
given up in Ecuador where I felt so bad
I would have never left this expedition
with this heart of love towards humanity
that I have that’s only because I
persevered through the hardest bit and
he’s so I’m doing five months it’s like
over five months of something they’re
doing money sighs water in weather sorry
I am undoubtedly this was one of the
hardest things I’ve ever done in my life
but I’m so thankful for it I’m so
thankful that I got to experience that
really hard part at this stop because if
I hadn’t experienced that the end it
wouldn’t have been so good and I’m so
thankful I got to understand that fear
and desperation and that hunger and yet
I got also to experience the love and
joy of kind people and if there’s two
messages I want you to take away from
this it’s persevere I always say the
difference between those that make it
and those that don’t is perseverance
then also go for your dreams it doesn’t
matter if it’s to live in a library to
read a hundred books in a month dope in
a coffee shop or poem every
whatever it is you can’t do it if you
just persevere
[Applause]
[Music]
and if you like having money here which
everyone but some of us have it
some of us don’t so a lot of it those
have very little of it some of us have
so much that we don’t know what to do
with it and some of us have so there’s
all that was great means together penny
spit food on our plates
these girls have absolutely none of it a
lot of them of em because their parents
don’t have enough money to feed them so
they’ve come to this organization to
help for help and I found this
organization online I decided to cycle
7,000 kilometers and then I found this
organization and I met with the founder
Phil and he told me this story about
these two girls and these two girls came
to this organization in the morning and
they had breakfast they just cough it
down and they went away and they paid
and they were called in for lunch and
they were but lunch no yeah you know
you’re supposed to eat three times a day
and they were like no we every other day
and so they couldn’t quite grasp the
fact that they were supposed to eat
three times a day it’s when it got to
like time for cookies and milk before
their dining room to heaven and the ones
that heard that story I said I don’t I
want to understand what it’s like to be
them I want to understand what it’s like
to go through that experience of not
having money not knowing if your food is
going to come today or tomorrow whether
you’re gonna have a bed tonight or
whether you’re not so I decided to do
this journey we are any money and it
lasted me 164 days and I didn’t spend
any money in that time now I want you to
try and empathize with me and them as
well so if you could all close your eyes
for me
now I want you to imagine a time that
you are really really hungry and that
could be this morning because you
breakfast that could be last week
because you’re on a diet but I want you
to imagine that real hunger feeling now
I want you to imagine the fact that
there is no bed up home for you there is
no food in the fridge for you there’s no
money in your pocket to go and buy food
now open your eyes that was an example
of day 16 lastingly our journey lasting
me 164 days and I forgot to add in there
that I’m at 3,000 meters above altitude
and I’m pushing a bike up the Andes I’ve
been pushing this bike for about four
days
I hadn’t had dinner I hadn’t had lunch
my stomach was cramping and it was
raining when I started planning this
expedition I sought the help of some
professionals in this industry and ran a
fine we gradually became a passion of
the expedition and he taught me that it
was in his opinion far too great a risk
and I spoke to the RGS and they said and
the what I was doing was morally
unacceptable and obviously there’s
always people when you’ve proposed an
idea that you want to do a dream there’s
always people saying no you can’t do it
it’s impossible you can’t live five
months without money you’re going to
need money for food you’re gonna need
money for for shelter and x y&z so
instead of listening to them I went on a
journey so I started in Ecuador and I
was playing I’m stuck in Colombia but my
husband went crazy he was that know this
there was danger above orono second a
fine i’ll starting an Ecuador since I
started Ecuador across the Andes to the
Army’s going across them again to the to
the coast Crispin against Bolivia went
through the salt flats high altitude
deserts went through Paraguay and the
pampas in Argentina so all in all that
was about 7,000 kilometers and at the
start I was averaging about seven to
fifteen kilometers a day because I was
so hungry but by the end I was doing
just over one hundred and thirty seven
hundred and forty was my daily which is
about 6070 miles a day and I started
before I left I thought you know what
I’m gonna do some weight training so I
waited and awaited
now wait a bit more and it wasn’t really
getting any fitter that bike oh good
idea
I wear about 64 kilos so not the
lightest but that bike weight nearly a
hundred kilos so when I got on that
fight because I hadn’t done any weight
training not the right kind anyway I got
on the bike and I kept I took me about
three days for my muscles to learn how
to ride a bike with that much weight I
kept falling off and having to put my
foot down and I’m so scared going
downhill because it would go too fast
and I couldn’t control it so the first
few days I was like down these super
lightweight panniers they’re not very
super light weight I am just do too many
heavy things inside them to make them
lightweight anymore
so if anyone’s planning on doing it a
cycling expedition pack your stuff stick
half of it out take off of it out again
then you might be around via the right
kilogram market so when I went to the
only for the first time I just thought
learn how to ride my bike but it was
such a difficult time for me no one was
giving me any food I couldn’t really
find shelter it was constantly raining
and I found myself constantly looking at
my feet just pushing this bike up the
mountain and it wasn’t a case of you
know getting through the day it was a
case of getting through the minute
getting through the hour as a result
getting through the day I could not look
at the journey in its entirety it I just
wanted to quit and then one day one day
I was pushing the bike up this mountain
looking down at my feet the past four
houses behind me had rejected me and
they said no they wouldn’t give me food
or shelter it was about three four
o’clock in the afternoon I was wet and I
was hungry and I remember getting to
this house and it was on my left and I
just burst into tears I was so drained
and this bike fell to the floor I put it
on the floor I dropped it to the floor
and I fell to my knees and I sat on the
road crying my eyes out and show the
person who cycled first with me he went
across the road to ask the lady if she’d
help us and I looked at her it’s here
streaming down my face and she looked
back at me and she made eye contact
and she shook her finger and I was like
it was like obviously the clearest know
that she could make but it was in her
complete right to say no no one had to
help us but I had to pick up my bike and
keep pushing there was no one else that
was going to help me there was no car
that would come pick me up there was no
shop that with I could buy food up I
literally just had to pick up his bike
and keep pushing and that’s just what we
have to do in life we just have to keep
picking the bike up and keep moving the
race were barbaric absolutely barbaric
that’s how much it rained we had to push
these bikes up hills like this and
cleaning I’m enjoying myself so um how
you’re a write-off good time every now
and then we find this amazing camping
spot to set up camp and we find dry wood
and we like cook some plain rice and
you’re not hungry plain rice tastes
really good damn good and I’d sit in the
tone with my full little belly and I’d
look out at the view and just going to
know what I’m in a bloody good place
this the views are incredible but when I
was in such a dark spiral when anyone’s
in the dark about it it can be really
difficult to look up and appreciate the
view around you but it should have been
a really other uh it should have been a
really happy day but the past three
weeks of the Ecuadorian Andes has
scarred me so much inside that I thought
Christ priests double the distance it’s
gonna be the same I have to cross the
Andes twice so all of my experience had
told me that this trip was gonna be
awful it was going to be terrible I
should be scared because that was my
past experience
go to the Amazon and the Peruvian people
started giving me loads of food sir of
course like there was food in front of
me and I just stopped it in my face I
turn into the two little pork I’ve got
so much weight in the Andes and my
fiancée came to visit me for a couple
of weeks he went oh no it’s like you
don’t know the half of it um but there
are amazing things there were these
tranchida’s purple tarantulas the size
of like my hand facing there were these
electric blue butterflies that were just
floating by and snakes everywhere in
these amazing streams that I would bathe
in every night and if I was hot during
the day I just dive into a river and
cool off and and it was flat and there
was food and it was flat so I was happy
as Larry this is an example of some of
the food that I was finding and eating
along the way to I’d see fruit is almost
a bit of a luxury so I’d be a bit scared
to ask for it unless it was mango it’s
falling off someone’s trees but the
Bolivian but all of the South Americans
really have this tendency to just throw
rubbish out of their car and there would
just be so much food on the side of the
road so I’d be looking at all the time
and I was cycling and it would still be
in its wrappers in like biscuits and
loads of fruit would fall off the back
of cartons so albeit I did have to like
wash some ants off the watermelon and I
probably ate quite a few in the process
but it’s just extra protein um and also
I found all of the guavas were awful I
kept picking off the trees biting them
looking down and having maggots like
just ink maggots in them and I’m like oh
no I’m not that hungry and I found them
tennis but I found a box of 64 cans of
tuna and that was my protein source for
pretty much the entire way it was the
tuna that have bones and stuff in it so
it wasn’t the nicest tuna but it was
tuna and I became quite possessive of
food as well and so I turned 23 I’m 23
now and I turned 23 um along this
journey and I was so worried my birthday
wasn’t going to be an enjoyable one and
no one would take me in and I would just
be alone and feeling awful but this
family took me in the day before my
birthday and they asked me if I’d like
to stay with
people I was cycling with and obviously
of course I was like yes yes take me
take me
and I remember bathing in the in the
stream with day like teenage daughters
that having fun and this guy here who
names comment we still text now shorts
to come to England and I made some
really lovely friendships and I only did
I have so much fun with them on my
birthday birthday cake like never in my
wildest dreams did I imagine that
someone would buy me a birthday cake so
I went upon my birthday and Carmen and
one of her sisters when it disappeared
they came back in the afternoon okay
like how beautiful is the human race so
at this point I made it to the
Ecuadorian Andes I’ve made it through
improve the Andes twice and Cho the
person looks like maybe first got hit by
minivans had to go home I then got
attacked my fiancee that came to talk
with me for a month got sideswiped by a
truck so he had to go home nephew don’t
cycle with me cuz so son benched it like
little swollen grape and not tenían
pill and half of her skin off with her
and she still got like this scar and her
leg permits it I’m starting to think I
had with people cycling with me but at
this point my elder sister my oldest is
declared recycling with me and I don’t
know if Paraguay was such a turning
point for me because I have my sister
with me so we can start my long and
seeing Disney songs and laugh and have
Fanta or whether it was the fact that I
knew had no more Andes ahead of me you
know that I cycled nearly three times
the height of Everest I went up Everest
almost three times yeah and then but I
hit Paraguay I know one of the
negativity from Ecuador and all of me
feeling like a burden on society like no
one wanted me like everyone just wanted
me to go away it disappeared in Paraguay
everyone was Tooting but not like that
get out of the way twos like that do
type twos and they weren’t like smiling
and they were laughing and they were
giving me thumbs up and it just made me
so happy inside to know that I wasn’t a
bird
people weren’t seeing me coming going Oh
God have heard about this one and the
people were so kind of then um and I
finally got ice cream you don’t know how
many times I saw children with ice cream
and I just wanted a hit let me take your
ice cream run off if it means dang it’s
the truth and I cycle pasties and
garages and petrol stations and then
have the little the fridge freezers with
all the ice creams in and I’m like um
because I couldn’t buy them and I wanted
them so bad and it took me nearly four
months but I got my ice cream it got it
and it’s big and it was yummy this
lady’s cool Adelaide she’s one of 12
children of an American families that
moved from America to Paraguay and they
were such Saints they were so lovely and
they took us in and yeah really really
lovely family and again in Paraguay me
and my sister were cycling along and we
were coming to his son John which is
where my sister there she was had she
was going home and my other sister was
coming that there was like a five day
period of waiting and I’m like oh God
because you can’t I can’t just check
into a hotel I just I have to find
somewhere to stay whether that’s just
camping on the side of the road that I’m
like how am I gonna find food because I
can’t bake from the same places over and
over again so I have to keep moving on a
daily basis sort of basically piss
anyone off by asking too much um but
these guys just stopped throwing me on
the side of the road and they asked if
you’re okay and they gave us some water
and they gave us some homemade biscuits
that her mom had just made and then you
know we all stood by the side of the
road and they took our hands and we did
this prayer circle and they prayed for
us and they said that once we reached a
sign see on we were more than welcome to
stay with them and then throw us a big
barbecue aside oh and we have all this
like food to me my sister like and in
truth we got to a selfie on and I found
McDonald’s Thank You free Wi-Fi like
shared my location and within 20 minutes
their friends joy they came and picked
us up in her pickup and then she hosted
me for five days whilst my sister went
and my other sister came and she took us
to a supermarket with um she took us to
a supermarket and she went you can have
whatever you want
pick it up and I’ll buy it – wait look
I’ve not had an option of what I wanted
to eat in four months and over four
months to someone telling me pick what
you want I’ll buy it for you I didn’t
know how to cope and still when I got
back to England myself and my husband
went to a supermarket and then I had to
get home I pretend there was a new bacon
for five minutes but I stopped crying
and then I went every time y’all get
feels like because they were just this
embarrassment for me because I could I
was so overwhelmed with the fact that I
had these choices again so yeah I didn’t
realize that I’d be so scarred by
supermarkets so I finally got to the
organization that I’ve been cycling
towards in cycling towards and that’s
not other sister day of her time
beautiful lady that she is and the crazy
thing is that the Navy in stripes that’s
the wife of the other person that runs
the place that helps found this and her
first time died at the age of nine from
leukemia which is why they start this
organization to help children and I’m
fortunate our second son now at the age
of 22 has got leukemia as well and he’s
not on his best legs um but they still
pour every day every day they poured
that heart into this organization
looking and caring for these girls
so they’re one of my biggest
inspirations the fact that these girls
can go through what they’ve gone through
and still run around and playing with me
and my sister like they’re just an
after-school Club
and I remember being in the back garden
and in a child the fence lawyer coming
into the driveway and two of the girls
shining up and say hi excuse us we’ve
got to go in for a meeting now
and it was quite shocking for me because
they just went oh okay you’re not here
for an after school
you are here for a reason um so I hope
to continue trying to raise money for
them and awareness for them and I asked
each and every individual not every
individual got a lot of them if they’re
like living now and they all said yes I
know and then I asked obviously well why
and they said because we get to learn
and it was like because it’s always
shocking when children come back and say
the one thing that they enjoy most in
life is learning and having an education
and being able to study because a lot I
think a lot of children in our country
they’re like I don’t want to do this
these girls the reason that they love
being there so much was because they got
to study and I went from crying on a
daily basis to smiling and laughing on a
daily basis that number they’re roughly
translated translates to six days of
cycling so it’s pretty damn shoved um
and it was when I started trying to
understand the whole law of attraction I
don’t know people any of you know this
one law of attraction but at the start I
was putting out such a negative feeling
and I was in this whole downward spiral
and all I was getting was negativity
that’s what I was putting out that’s
what I was getting back and near at the
end all I was feeling was positivity and
laughter and happiness and they got to
the point where I had to tell people to
stop giving me food I didn’t have to ask
any more people to stop giving me food
because they kept trying to give me food
um and this chap here you can see the
distance me and my sister were like
smiling and laughing and just having a
good time in the bikes and he stopped
and said you know you guys have got a
really good onler which is wave in
Spanish and he stayed and he came and
found us and gave us these little
presents with a math take up which is an
Argentinian drink and of omneya which is
the straw that you drink out of um and
thank you very much I’m still filming
because I film the whole thing and then
we went off inside food and then in the
evenings is happened in the morning and
evening he came and found us they said I
really want to like there’s just a
village just slightly further on I mean
there’s a Cabana house there and I’ll
pay for a room for you there was like
it was just incredible um so he paid for
a room for us and gave us presents so
that’s when I recited wonder and ponder
by this whole law of attraction and this
is just an interesting fact because I
found nothing there now I start sipping
my coffee one morning like cockroach so
if you want to go on adventures just be
willing that you might get cockroaches
in your mouth it’s funny looking that
with the photos the first lot of me
being quite sad my voice looking away
into the distance and like pulling funny
faces to mask the fact that are not
really having that much fun
and all the photos nearing the end there
is me smiling and laughing and having
such a good time and looking back on
them I’m so thankful that I persevered
through those hard times because I got
to the best time at the end and if I had
given up in Ecuador where I felt so bad
I would have never left this expedition
with this heart of love towards humanity
that I have that’s only because I
persevered through the hardest bit and
he’s so I’m doing five months it’s like
over five months of something they’re
doing money sighs water in weather sorry
I am undoubtedly this was one of the
hardest things I’ve ever done in my life
but I’m so thankful for it I’m so
thankful that I got to experience that
really hard part at this stop because if
I hadn’t experienced that the end it
wouldn’t have been so good and I’m so
thankful I got to understand that fear
and desperation and that hunger and yet
I got also to experience the love and
joy of kind people and if there’s two
messages I want you to take away from
this it’s persevere I always say the
difference between those that make it
and those that don’t is perseverance
then also go for your dreams it doesn’t
matter if it’s to live in a library to
read a hundred books in a month dope in
a coffee shop or poem every
whatever it is you can’t do it if you
just persevere
[Applause]
[Music]
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