It's true sometimes a shocking event can change your life...

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This is my story that I want to share with you.

 

It was the 13th of March of 2004, a Saturday afternoon, my dad decided to take advantage of the springs good weather by going on one of his usual bike rides.

 

Andrea loved his bike and his summer's rides that happened year after year took him all the way to Santiago de Compostela. A cycle and a chat with his usual friends.

​The events that happened that Saturday afternoon are now unforgettable.

 

I remember saying goodbye to him very quickly as I left the little street that led to his house.

As it got late my mum got worried and called the police first and then his friends because he had never been this late before.

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He always said that going on his bicycle alone was dangerous, "you never know what might happened on the road",  but that day to save some time he took a shortcut in a little street between Mondoví and Bastia of Mondoví,  his friends were waiting for him not far ahead, since they didn't see him they tough that he changed his mind and had gone home.

 

They were the ones who found him,  retracing his route, in that little country road they found him collapsed on the side of the road alive but unconscious.

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The phone call from my mum to warn me about what had happened shocked me and then adrenaline, agony and the fear wouldn't let me sleep for days.

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The rush to the hospital at Mondoví  and then the operation at Cuneo didn't save my dad's life.

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He suffered from brain stroke, still to this day the memories of  how many times he complained that something wasn't right he used to say that he felt like, "water was moving in my head".

The hours of waiting by the side of the road and then at the hospital caused irreparable damage.

 

Death was an off-limits topic, so my mum had to decide for him, trying to do the best thing possible  and decided to donate his organs, they improved and saved lots of peoples lives.

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From that day onward my life changed, I could no longer recognize myself, from the start I felt the need to change my way of life, the need to immediately do the things that I kept postponing, this led to the big change moving to Orkney and lots of other changes related to our move not just for me but for my entire family.

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And yet I don't feel like I had done enough and for years the idea of retracing his last pilgrimage not on a bicycle but on foot tormented me.

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Finally I decided to tackle it in the summer of 2019 the "French Way" all the way to Santiago de Compostela and then onwards to Finisterre.

 

In memory of my beloved dad I'll take on this journey but along with my adventure I decided to contact two charities:

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Associazione per la Lotta all'Ictus cerebrale (A.L.I.Ce) Cuneo Onlus,

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and Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland.

 

My target is a double fundraising in two different country because prevention is possible with your help. It's very important to inform others, prevention and support after a stroke and for all of these money is necessary and I hope to help raise money  but to do so I must ask a small contribution from you.

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Follow me.

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I thank you for your time spent reading my words.

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Good walk through life to all of you.

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Elisa Gava