LIFE BEGINS AT 40!

Member, Graham Harker was guest speaker at our Club Zoom meeting on Tuesday 28 July 2020.

Well, Graham certainly had us fooled at the start of his talk. He took us back to the 1980s, when he was 40, but showed a video about the 1983-85 Famine in Ethiopia, which resulted in the death of 1.2 million people with many hundreds of thousands more displaced. In 1984 Bob Geldorf released “Do they know it’s Christmas”, which raised £8 million for famine relief. In 1985 Live Aid took place, raising a further £145 million for famine relief. Both initiatives – the record and the concert – elevated the international profile of the famine. People in the West also urged their governments to participate in helping out the humanitarian crisis by providing aid. 

What had this to do with Graham? He had always been keen on running and had been in a cross-country team both at school and college. In 1987, he became a member of the Croydon team which was part of the National Teacher Appraisal Pilot project. At the time, a 10K run “Race for Life” was organised in London and although he had never run this distance before, decided to take part. The result was that he got the running bug. He trained regularly and over the next couple of years took part in several Half-Marathons. In 1989 he was accepted for the London Marathon, 26 miles, which he completed in 3 hours, 59 minutes. He went on to complete the 1990 London Marathon, but in 1991 had to withdraw prior to the race due to an injured Achilles tendon. 

So, the lessons learned is, if you want to do something, and are determined enough, you can if you set your mind to it.

Member Richard Ford said that this reminded him that in the 1980s he attended a Teacher Training session, held in a coastal town, and wondered why Graham was getting up early in the morning to run along the promenade. Now he knows! Richard very much enjoyed Graham’s talk and appreciated what he had done (Richard hates running!). Graham was thanked by all for his entertaining talk.

THIS TALK COVERED SDG 3.