To help celebrate passing the milestone of 5,000 copies of Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie, I asked people on Twitter & Facebook to nominate people or causes who might benefit fromย receivingย a complimentary copy of the book. I had quite a few nominations and thanks to everyone who took the time to consider the offer. There are going to be some disappointed people I’m afraid and I apologise in advance to those who I have not chosen but I have made my decision. I originally intended giving away three copies but following the response, I increased this to five. My short list contains six so for the sake of postage of one extra book, I’m going to send out six.
Here are the successful nominators and nominees (in no particular order);
Karen Stuart nominated her friend Adrian Wing who is cycling from Calais to Montauroux in the south of France and trying to raise ยฃ20,000 for bowel cancer research in the process. He gets the first copy. Good luck with the trip Adrian.
The next copy goes to Chris Archer’s dad. “He’s been ill recently which has put off plans for [cycling] the end to end. Your book may speed up his recovery.” Well, I’ve never claimed that there are any kind of medical benefits from reading Good Vibrations but it’s worth a try. Well done Chris!
Mark Vatcher has nominated a charity – Wheels for Wellbeing – “they can share it” he says. The charity supports disabled people to cycle. They will soon be receiving copy number three.
The fourth book is going to another group of people; the families of patients at Simon Gregory’s intensive care unit: “some relatives are there for days & sometimes weeks. An inspirational read would be great for them“. Let’s hope so.
Two more books to go and the next one is heading to Yorkshire, York to be precise to a person nominated by an old school friend, Richard Hirst. Richard has nominated one of his colleagues at York St. John University, Andy Smith. “He is an expert in sport & sports participation at the university & he would use it to inspire the next generation“. I can’tย believeย that I am so old that I can now refer to younger people as ‘the next generation’ but it’s true… Good call Richard!
And so to the final book… This week is Valentine’s Day of course and one nomination did suggest that love is in the air (although if it isn’t, this will be horribly embarrassing). Neil Carrington says he would love to cycle Europe with his friend Lois. He doesn’t cite inspiration as the reason, merely that “a copy of your book will keep [her] busy while I save up the money“. There’s true love for you!
Congratulations to all the successful nominated people. I’ll be in touch via Twitter or Facebook for address etc… If you are able to send immediately, your copies of Good Vibrations will be in the post today. And apologies once more to theย unsuccessfulย people. You could of course try again when we get to 10,000 books sold…
Happy cycling!
Andrew (& Reggie)
