Meet one of my heroes...

I’ve always thought it a privilege to have opportunities to spend time with like-minded people. I’ve been lucky enough in the last ten days to be with a few of them.

They’re authentic, generous of spirit and loyal. They’re all people I look up to and who have made my life and the lives of others that much better. I want to introduce you to one of them.

I was at school with Dave Beevers. We worked in journalism together and we’ve both shared some ups and downs. He’s a creative force, a brilliant writer and possesses one of the sharpest senses of humour ever. We laugh a lot together.

He’ll forgive me for sharing that he was never the fittest, most exercise conscious or lightest of human beings but in the last twelve months, he lost more than five stones, competed in half and full marathons and has become one of the fittest people I know. This weekend he'll participate in the Rotterdam Marathon.

Until few short months ago, he had never learned to swim or even ride a bike. He’s now competing in triathlons and his goal is to compete in an Iron Man event. If you care to look that up you’ll see that it ranks amongst one of the toughest organised physical challenges of their kind.

What a transformation. All this is achieved under the banner of Running with Diane. It’s Dave’s tribute to his beloved wife whom he lost to breast cancer in February two years ago. Her memory, personality and love drive him, inspire him and help him in all these impressive endeavours.

Having lost his anchor, and to some extent his reason for living, he’s found a new purpose and is achieving what we all want -  the feeling that we’re making a real difference.

Dave was 24 stone when Diane died. He joined a local gym in April 2013 and went on to lose eight stones in 12 months, weighing in at 16st when he ran the Rotterdam and Liverpool marathons last year.

If you want to be moved with some great writing, and perhaps spare him a thought - or something more tangible - take a look at http://runningwithdiane.blogspot.co.uk or better still, https://www.justgiving.com/rotterdamdavehttps://www.justgiving.com/rotterdamdave

This bit of inspiration is taken from one of his blogs:

‘Change your mindset and suddenly what you are capable of becomes an unknown. And that’s the exciting bit. When you stop saying ‘I can’t’ and start asking, ‘I wonder if...’ that’s the adventure there, in a nutshell. The shackles come off, your self-deprecation evaporates and you start to think of what might be.

Look up and not down, ahead and not behind. Don’t let how you are determine how you will be. You have no idea how far, how long or how high you can reach because you haven’t tried to find out yet.

When you start to dream, simply start to imagine how much better you could be than you are today, that’s when you feel the irresistible urge to get off the sofa. And that’s when you know you’ve conquered the most difficult part of all: reaching the start line.’