The latest corporate sponsort to join the Long Ride 2013 is one of Australia's leading companies yet one that not too many people would ever have heard of, yet they are one who do a hell of a lot for charity, and proudly.

 

Established in 1987, Compu-Stor prides itself on being one of the largest and longest serving Document Storage companies in Australia. The core services they provide for their customers include Records Management; Document Storage; Document Scanning and Imaging of Records; Secure Confidential Destruction; Records Management Services via Web-Based Systems; Offsite Backup Solutions; Sentencing; and, Project Support.

 

Compu-Stor is proud to be ISO 9001:2008 compliant. This provides their customers with the comfort and knowledge that their processes and procedures are to best practice and standard. Compu-Stor believe in working with their customers to find the best solution to fit to their needs.

 

Compu-Stor provides services to a diverse range of customers, from Legal Firms, Accountants, Insurance Companies, Government Departments, Healthcare Sectors, and many more industries. This allows them to ensure they have an extensive range of skills to accommodate all customers and their requirements - no matter what the size. Compu-Stor prides itself in providing solutions across all aspects private and public sectors.

 

Compu-Stor prides themselves on giving back to the community where they can and by coming onboard for the Long Ride they allow me to join a very special group of charities that they support including: The Returned Services League of Australia; St Vincent de Paul; Sids and Kids Western Australia; Australian Council on Smoking and Health; and Bright Spark Foundation. 

 

I'm sure that Compu-Stor are proud to be a part of the Long Ride, just as I am proud to be associated with such a great company and join the group that they already support.

 

 

Goodbye Grandad

For many of us, the Long Ride is not only about challenging ourserlves, it's about taking on the challenge for someone else.

Many riders have been touched by prostate cancer in one way or another, for me it was my father who had it a few years ago and is now thankfully in remission.  Since taken on my first Long Ride in 2011 I have met many other people who have been touched by the disease, many are people who have come along and supported me.

While my Long Ride's will always be dedicate to my father the 2013 event will take on the a special significance as it will now also be dedicated to my Grandfather, Len, who passed away earlier this week.

Funnily enough Grandad never was into motorbikes, in fact he never held either a bike or car licence for his entire 90 years, but he always supported me in riding and always took an interest.  I remember my first little Yamaha MX80 when I was a kid, it sat in his backyard under the porch for the best part of a few years as I 'tried' to rebuild it and not once did he complain, he just held the torch as I worked on it.

Aftert completing the last Long Ride, Grandad took some interest but coming from England and never really travelling in Australia, I don't think he grasped quite how far the distances were.  Never mind he would still ask about the 'bike'.

Thankfully Grandad only had a short illness and I was able to say goodbye to him before he passed. 

Goodbye Grandad, I know you'll be riding with me in 2013, and you'll finally see some of Australia.

Casual Dress Raises A Casual 800

As part of the ongoing fund raising activities fellow Manager within TSG at Computershare, Patrick Drew suggested that we have 2 weeks of casual dress with the premise being that staff donate $5 each.

It was a great idea that saw almost everyone donate and achieve an amazing total of $827.60 taking the overall total donated to now well above $4000.

I can't thank the TSG staff who have supported the Long Ride so far enough, and especially Pat for driving this initiative.

While this has been going on there has been some great corporate support as well as many local councils and associated businesses showing an interest.  Much of this support will actually dictate my journey home as I stop in every town that has helped me to make sure a I say thank you.

Golfers Hit In Right Direction

For the second year running the Meredith Golf Club, between Geelong and Ballarat has come up with a great way to raise funds for the Long Ride.

The small club in country Victoria attracted nearly 40 golfers who all took part in a day long tournament to win prizes not normally seen in a golfing tournament.

With prizes up for grabs for both handicapped and non-handicapped players it proved to be a great day that raised $1297.85 which will all got to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia through the Long Ride.

Organisers of the event worked tirelessly to ensure that there were plenty of prizes for the tournament and also a raffle that catered mostly for golfers.  A huge thankyou must not only go to the golfers who travelled to Meredith to play but also the many companies that threw their support behind the vent, these were -
   Barwon Heads Resort
   13th Beach Golf Course
   Tutt Bryant Hire
   Mercure Geelong
   Portarlington Golf Course
   The House of Golf (Geelong)
   Crown Casino
   as well as the many other people who supported the day.  Without this sort of support we couldn't make days like this such a huge success for the PCFA and the Long Ride.

CityLink ... the missing link.

Hmmm ... it’s interesting that CityLink say they will refund motorists for the debacle that occurred today when both the Domain and Burnley tunnels were closed due to a computer glitch.

This is fine if you have an eTag or day pass (you have to chase this yourself) but what about the many more motorists that don’t usually use CityLink and yet were still affected by the many traffic jams around Melbourne that were a flow on from the closures?

I had staff who were over 3 hours late to work, and as some of the work is time critical we were affected greatly by this.  I myself sat in the car for two hours before having had enough I turned around and went home, frustrated by this at least I was able to jump on the bike and make my way through the traffic somewhat, still to turn up to work many hours passed the time I would’ve liked to start at.

Simply refunding motorist who use CityLink is not good enough how about refunding the wasted fuel or work hours that everyone else has had to endure?  It’s ridiculous that a city can close down because of one set of tunnels.  CityLink should be forced to allow free travel or somehow compensate motorists and businesses affected by this morning’s debacle.

Wide Bay - Community Banking Helping The Community

Wide Bay Australia Ltd is Queensland’s largest and Australia’s fourth largest building society.

With a philosophy of helping ordinary Australian's achieve their dream of home ownership Wide Bay is also very strong on helping the local community with many initiatives.  Wide Bay's head office is located in Bundaberg, 380km north of Brisbane and is one of the many stops on the Long Ride return leg.

With this in mind it seemed fitting that Wide Bay has supported my Long Ride with a donation made through the ride to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

It's this local support that is seeing Wide Bay quickly become recognised as a well respected and trusted financial institution.  I can't thank Wide Bay enough for their support, it's this kind of support that makes the Long Ride such a success.

More information about Wide Bay and the many services they offer please visit www.widebayaust.com.au

Increased Survival with Enzalutamide in Prostate Cancer after Chemotherapy

More good news for men with castrate-resistant metastatic prostate cancer who have failed chemotherapy. Two new therapies have recently been approved for use in Australia, cabazitaxel (Jevtana) and abiraterone (Zytiga). Cabazitaxel was listed on PBS from 1st August 2012.

Yesterday, in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results of the phase 3 trial into the effectiveness of enzalutamide (formerly known as MDV3100) were published. Enzalutamide targets multiple steps in the androgen receptor signaling pathway, the major driver of prostate cancer growth. It is taken orally, once-daily.

Enzalutamide significantly prolonged survival of men with castrate-resistant metastatic prostate cancer after chemotherapy with a median increase in overall survival from 13.6 months to 18.4 months.

Clinical trials of enzalutamide in earlier stage prostate cancer are on-going.

For more information please visit www.prostate.org.au