Hi there eveyone!! How are you all doing? So I'm writing what could be my last blog of this whole campaign for Brain Tumour Ireland. A campaign that all started last year in July / August time when I was on the look out to do something completely different for Brain Tumour Ireland and came across this TEDx video. I managed to get in touch with Sebastian and his team of camel milk lovers, made great friends with them and decided to embark on what would surely be one of the most novel and outrageous campaigns that people in this part of the world have ever seen! You see, that was my plan all along. I wanted to do something completely off the wall, think outside the box, and deliver much needed funds and awareness for a charity that a very good friend of mine, Simon, and his family had set up. 

Hello there friends, supporters and all those following the campaign! So Day 6 had a bit of drama. Basically, woke up early at around 8am. Very keen to see how the bottles of milk were this morning. After a shower, I went into the kitchen to check on the bottles I had defrosted the night before. Very nervous at this stage because of what happened to the milk the night before. Took 3 bottles for breakfast (1 and a half litres). The first bottle was good....there was no 'grainy' or 'lumpy' consistency with this one thankfully. However, the next two bottles of milk I opened were awful - smelled different, tasted different and had larger particles in it. I had no choice but to try and drink it because one bottle is simply not enough for me in the morning. I poured it into a glass and tried to down it in one. That was a bad idea - I basically threw it back up into the sink!! Absolutely disgusting. Both bottles seemed to be gone off. 

I immediately contacted my friends in California and Kenya on Skype who have done the fast for 10 days and more! From describing the milk to them, they told me that "It's just susa!". I hadn't a clue what that was? Upon further explanation, I understood that 'susa' is a Somali term for camel milk that is fermented and sour. Apparently, according to the guys, it is 'difficult to drink', 'an acquired taste' and 'possibly even better for you than normal milk'. One of the guys explained to me that during the freezing process, the proteins expand and pop and thus give the 'extra grainy', lumpy consistency!! Kind of reassuring but still doesn't get away from the fact that it is very difficult to drink. For me, I simply couldn't stomach the lumpy parts and I kept throwing them up!! Nightmare.


Myself and Joe (filmmaker) decided to go into town to buy a sieve to see could I filter out the lumps. Headed into town, fairly hungry at this stage, and bought the sieve. Went to meet friends in Shoreditch at Boxpark after that. Chilled there in the sun there and tried out the sieve with the bottles I had brought with me! The sieve did the trick. It was absolutely clogged up with fermented milk at the end of pouring a bottle through it. Disgusting.


Anyway, managed to get two bottles into me (1 litre) using the sieve thankfully. At this stage, I only had (1 and a half litres) and it was 5pm. Usually, at this stage, I'd have 3 & a half litres in me. I was surviving anyway...... Got back home at 6pm and used the sieve again to down another 3 bottles. At this stage, I was wrenching at the sight of the the bottles of milk. This really annoyed me because I was beginning to like the milk by Thursday, despite my mood swings. Anyway, I'm very determined to finish this campaign for Brain Tumour Ireland so I just drank the lumpy milk! When you think of all the people affected by the disease and all they go through, this is a piece of cake.....


So a friend of mine was over from Ireland and she was staying in my house tonight. However, she was out on the tear in London and I had to stay in! Nothing worse when friends are over from Ireland and you have to stay in! I went into central London with her, dropped her into her friends and just headed home - on my own..... When I got home, I had another bottle of sieved camel milk and went to bed! Not a bad day but just really disappointed with these bottles of milk, especially since I was coming to like the stuff. 

Anyway, this weekend has been difficult with the milk as it's not tasting nice, I've had to sieve lumps out of it, it has made me wrench a few times and I've been hungry because I've cut down on the amount I'm drinking. Please guys, you've been awesome to date, but if you haven't donated please do! You can do it here!

So after two bad days on Wednesday and Thursday, Friday got off to a good start. I felt great getting up - hungry as ever, but in a good mood. Joe didn't come over this morning to do filming so I got the morning off. After my usual liter of milk for breakfast, left my apartment and jumped on the bus into work. The bus journey wasn't so bad this morning as it was less packed and there was very little traffic on the roads. 

Woke up starving as usual. Went about my usual daily routine, you know, shower, s**t and a shave. However, this time my routine was disrupted in an rather unconventional manner. So the shower and the shave went well - nothing to worry about there, it was the toilet part of my daily routine where I got a shock, a big shock! I suppose you can tell where this one is going.....how will it put this politely? Basically, my no. 2, instead of being its usual colour, was pure white!! Very, very weird experience on the toilet this morning I can tell you that my friends! I really don't want to get into the details of it all, I'll spare you from that, but if that doesn't make you donate, then I don't know what will!! 

So moving on from my bowel problems now and as usual, I drank two bottles of camel milk (1 litre) for breakfast. Jumped on the bus to work then. I'm finding the bus into work the worst part of the day because I can never get a seat, it's always packed and it really makes me feel weak and dizzy. There is no avoiding it though and I've only one more day of it to do! When I get into work, I have to unpack my bag and put six bottles in the fridge. I drink one bottle immediately before starting work just to get me through until lunch time. 

At 10am I got a call from Tipp FM asking me to do an interview! I was delighted that my local radio station got word of the campaign and wanted to talk to me. I really enjoyed the interview with Seamus Martin and it was great to get the word out there about Brain Tumour Ireland and all the fantastic work they're doing. If you missed me on Tipp FM this morning, you can catch my interview here!

After the interview it was back to work. This week we've been very busy trying to get a file signed off and finish off our work on a project. This has really made the challenge even more difficult. I'm an accountant here in London and while my employers are understanding of the situation, I feel they're quite annoyed that I can't put 100% into my work. So that's another stressful aspect. During the day I also felt quite hungry and experienced cravings for food. As I result, I started to get in a bad mood and felt a bit fed up with it all! At this stage I reverted back to my strategy of just getting on with it and keeping my mind off the negative thoughts.....and of course, I just downed another liter of milk - does the job every time. 

Got back home at around 8pm this evening to my house mate cooking up a storm! Smelled so good and the food cravings came rushing back!! Literally locked myself into my room until Shane had finished. Joe then called around at 9.30 and we did some more filming for the evening. Sent around a few emails before hitting the hay. Up early tomorrow, will hopefully get a good night's sleep if I can! 

Once again, thanks to everyone who has donated so far - it means a huge amount! If you haven't donated yet, please do by clicking here. Thanks in advance!

Day 3 started off with a bang with my interview on RTE 2fm with Hector. He gave me the guts of 10 minutes air time which was awesome! For those of you who couldn't listen to it, simply click here to hear how I got on with Hector!

I won't get into too much details but Day 3 didn't go well. In short, I couldn't concentrate on my work, I had headaches, felt dizzy on the bus to and from work, and got very weak towards the end of the day. Needless to say, I was happy to see the end of Day 3 and just prayed that Day 4 and the rest of the week wouldn't be like that! 

So it's now 9.30pm on Day 2 of my Camel Milk Me for Brain Tumour Ireland. I was woken up by the filmmaker Joe who called to the apartment door at 7am - I got out of the bed and felt absolutely starved!! Felt quite dizzy as well. Grabbed a quick shower, changed and then sat for breakfast with my housemate Shane. He had the usual 4 Weetabix and I simply gulped the two bottles of camel milk (1 litre). Left the house with another 7 bottles of milk in my bag to get me through the day!

Hunger came about again quite quickly so I had to have another bottle at 10.30am. It seems to do the trick - although it doesn't taste the best, and your body yearns for food constantly, I seem to be adequately nourished when I drink it. So far so good......

At 11.45am I took a call from Kfm in Naas and did an interview live on air for them with Clem Ryan. Was great to talk to Clem and get information out there about Brain Tumour Ireland and my campaign. Was quite nervous before speaking but once you get into the flow, it's grand! Think I'll be catching up with the guys at Kfm later in the week as they ring me to see how I'm getting on..... Really appreciative to everyone at Kfm for allowing me on air!

Lunch time soon comes and this is the worst part of the day! You can get the smell of food wafting through the halls of the office when it's lunch time. Added to that, all my colleagues talk about where they're going for lunch what they're getting, etc. I literally have to sit in my office while they go for lunch and drink three bottles of milk. I remember thinking at lunch - I would do anything to eat something tasty like a juicy burger, or a flavorsome curry - ANYTHING!!! 

Anyway, got on with my strategy of keeping busy and not thinking about food..... 

At around 3.30pm I got a huge surprise when I received a call from the producers of 'Breakfast with Hector on RTE 2fm' !! Couldn't believe it! They told me they had heard about my campaign from Brain Tumour Ireland and were very interested in interviewing me live on the Breakfast Show in the morning with Hector! Delighted!! Hector is some man and have always thought he is great craic!! So I'm really looking forward to it! Tomorrow morning (Wed 16th), tune into RTE 2fm at 7.20 am where I'll be talking to Hector about my Camel Milk Me for Brain Tumour Ireland campaign!! Awesome.

So Day 2 has been going well so far. However, the headache came back in the evening and I just found it difficult to concentrate on the computer screen. Like the previous day, I just took 15mins out, drank a bottle of milk and got some fresh air. That did the trick. At 5.30pm I was out the door and back home to get my gear ready for hurling training.

Got back home at 6.30, quick turnaround and was out the door again at 6.40 - Joe the filmmaker picked me up and we drove down to my pitch for training with my local team, Kilburn Gaels. During this campaign, I'm determined to really push myself and do as much of my daily activities as possible. Having said that, I was still very nervous going to training as I feel quite weak most of the time. Tackling people, sprinting, getting hit, etc., may not be the best for me. Plus, hurling takes a lot of concentration as it's a pretty skillful game! Anyway, the training was a light session so I managed to complete it all thankfully. The coach was giving me stick all session about Camel Milk and bringing Joe up to film the training! But by the end of it, I got the coach and a few of the players to try the milk! Needless to say it didn't go down too well with them!! "Rotten" was how one of my team mates described it! I thought my coach, a staunch Tipperary native, said it best with: "Why in God's name would you be drinking milk that's after comin' outta a camel's ass?!"  Had no reply to that obviously!! Until tomorrow friends.....

TUNE INTO RTE 2FM TOMORROW MORNING (WED 16TH) AT 7.20AM WHERE I'LL BE TAKING TO HECTOR ON HIS BREAKFAST SHOW!!

So it's 10.30pm on Monday night and Day 1 is nearly down. I've already drank 9 bottles which is 4 and a half liters of camel milk. I downed two bottles in the morning before going to work and felt OK.....a little hungry, but OK. At 10am the hunger was coming back stronger so I just drank another half liter to keep me going until lunch. 

Lunch time was the worst! My two colleagues came into the office with what looked (and smelled) like an unbelievable lasagna and spag bol!! Ridiculous! I looked at them in utter disgust and only then did they realise..... at which point they started laughing!! Sound. However, I managed to put up with it and carry on - downing another liter of camel milk....

After lunch I was slightly worried as I started to get a headache and feel dizzy. I couldn't concentrate on my work at all. Had to take a break and go outside for some fresh air. That seemed to do the trick.
Unfortunately, the hunger set in then! However, yet another liter later and I was back on track - well, kind of! At about 3 o'clock, I got a call from the guys at Brain Tumour Ireland asking me to do an interview for K fm in Naas, Kildare. They want to interview me for their morning show at 11.45am. Looking forward to that and hopefully it will raise the profile of Brain Tumour Ireland and may even help me with my fundraising. If you're in the Kildare area tomorrow, tune in!

Left work early at around 6pm and headed home. My house mate had just arrived back from a trip away to Ireland. He was cooking a whopper fish pie  - I genuinely felt desperate for a bite. Stuck to the milk obviously! I reckon it's going to be a difficult week as my body is yearning for food now. It's a mental thing though - got to keep busy and keep my mind off food! It's actually very difficult though - you wouldn't realise how much we spend eating, preparing and thinking about food in just one day alone! Until tomorrow guys......

So I book myself in to see the doctor this week. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really see the need to get the opinion of a doctor anyway because I felt I would know more than her about Camel Milk. Added to that, from talking to people who have done the fast, I know that I won't die or anything like that (hopefully!)...... 

However, as people were in full flow with all the scare mongering - as if they were all some kind of camel milk expert - telling me I would lose weight, I couldn't survive, etc, etc, I decided to get the opinion of a doctor. Well, what a complete waste of my time and money that was!! 

The doctor, as nice as she was, simply started to Google camel milk and it's benefits!! I was thinking to myself, "What am I doing here - I could teach her about all of this...she should be paying me!!"  Anyway, we did have a good chat about it. She basically said that it's not dangerous, I won't lose much weight and that my concentration levels will be fine. 

HOWEVER! She did say that because there is not much calories in Camel Milk, I will be very hungry for the week. Added to that, she said it would be extremely difficult, mentally, to overcome my body yearning for food constantly. Now that was worrying to be honest....

The best thing about the doctor was that she thought my idea was awesome and that while I'm doing the fast, the one thing I should do to get me through the challenge is to think of the hunger strikers in Northern Ireland and how they lasted for so long without water. I thought that was kind of cool initially, you know, coming from an Aussie doctor and all. Looking back on it now though, and considering the week that was in it (Thatcher's death), and the way the hunger strikers ultimately died, her source of motivation seemed, well, for want of a better word - weird?

So in my final 2/3 days before the challenge, I have been trying to fatten up. On Friday night, a very good friend of mine came over from Ireland and about 7 of us all went out together for an amazing seafood meal at Oxford Circus. It just made me realise how much I absolutely LOVE FOOD and how central it is to nearly everything I do. I had a 'moment' at the table where I was basically like - NOOOOOO - what have I gotten myself into?! That was scary. However, the best thing to do when those thoughts come into my head is to block it out and pretend like it's not an issue at all. Easier said that done.....

Saturday I had to fly back to Ireland for the day and was quite busy so I wasn't really thinking about the fast, which, as I now know, is a good thing!! 

This morning, a great friend of mine (who's over visiting from the States) cooked me an awesome Mexican breakfast - scrambled egg, chorizo, halloumi and guacamole. Unbelievable scenes in the kitchen this morning. What a treat before my week of hunger.

This afternoon, I'm going out for a big Sunday roast with friends - as a kind of 'last supper' thing!! This will be my last meal for one week!! I better enjoy it I suppose! 

So with just over four days to go to my camel milk fast, the nerves have well and truly kicked in.  There is a lot going through my head - will I last the seven days, will I lose much weight (can't afford to do that), will my concentration levels be affected, will I be able to keep working, will I constantly feel weak? 

I suppose this is not helped by the fact that people are telling me all sorts of things including; "You're going to stink of a camel dairy" (I hope not!), "You'll never make seven days without food!",  "You're going to lose a huge amount of weight", "You wont be able to concentrate", etc. Up until now, I've simply blocked all that out, but at this stage, this is starting to creep into my head. 

In an effort to build motivation and determination to succeed in the challenge, I have done a lot of research into brain tumours and the suffering that victims of the disease and their families go through. When you really begin to understand how people with brain tumours suffer, it makes what I'm doing seem like a breeze. It will be very important to keep this in mind throughout the week when my body starts to yearn for food and water. 

One source of apprehension was the fact that I hadn't tried camel milk until Monday of this week - just 7 days before my challenge!! However, having tasted it for the first time, that is no longer a concern. To be perfectly honest, I was very worried before tasting it - I had thoughts it was going to stink of camel (not that I've ever smelled a camel!) - and taste even worse. To my relief, it actually didn't taste all that bad and there wasn't much of a smell off it. I'm not saying that it is tasty or anything, because in truth, it simply isn't! But, it's graaaaannnnddd.......

The final trailer was just shot last week in the Porterhouse in Covent Garden. Few friends from work came along and together with Joe, the filmmaker, we shot what should be an excellent third and final trailer (Keep an eye out for it in the coming days). Big thanks to all the staff at the Porterhouse who were really helpful and allowed us to shoot there! 

Finally, the fundraising for the first two weeks has gone well. I've raised over $1,500 so far which is awesome - people are genuinely so nice when it comes to raising money for deserving charities! I must admit, my target of €3,500 is still massively ambitious! Whatever about the taste of the milk or lasting the seven days.....not reaching my target is now my single biggest worry. It would be devastating if I couldn't reach it. Hopefully, when people see what I'm going through and understand all that Brain Tumour Ireland stands for, they will give up a few quid to the cause! Fingers crossed for me!! If you feel you would like to donate, please do by clicking here! It would mean a huge amount to me, and most importantly, Brain Tumour Ireland. Thanks in advance!

So the mission for camel milk turned out to be quite the mission indeed. About three weeks ago, I received a devastating call from my UK supplier of camel milk - Ahmed Al-Suweidi. Ahmed lives in Bolton and imports the camel milk from the Netherlands - from here. However, during the months of January, February and March, the camels in Holland were not producing enough milk to export to the UK. So Ahmed called me to tell me that unfortunately there was a strong possibility I would not have the camel milk in time to do the campaign in April. 

Disaster. I explained to Ahmed the importance of the campaign and that I was trying to raise money for Brain Tumour Ireland. In a desperate plea, I asked him was there anything he could do to ensure the campaign still went ahead. Being the gentleman that he is, Ahmed called all of his customers in the UK to see if they could help in any way. To our surprise, a customer (Shane from Leeds) got back to us and said that he had 75 bottles of frozen milk and that he would be willing to sell them to me considering the effort I was making for charity. What's more, Shane was willing to drive to Bolton, from his home town in Leeds, and deliver the bottles to Ahmed. 

Excellent. We're back in business! Ahmed then organised for the 75 bottles to be specially delivered from his freezer in Bolton to my house here in North London. The bottles were to be specially wrapped and packaged and still frozen by the time they reached my place in London.....but he "couldn't promise anything". Not ideal. 

I was expecting the milk to arrive on Saturday 16th March - sometime in the early morning. On that day, my doorbell rang (as expected) but by the time I managed to scamper down, the delivery man had left. What an idiot! Why would he leave within than a minute of ringing the bell? For the next hour, I painstakingly rang every Parcel Force depot in London trying to locate the whereabouts of my very-soon-to-be-melted camel milk. Eventually I had tracked it to a depot in Camden. I quickly jumped on the train, arrived in Camden, sprinted to the depot and was fortunate enough to make it there before the close at 12.30pm! To finish off the great escape, I managed to convince one of the drivers to bring me back to my house, with the two boxes of milk, all free of charge. Happy Days!

So to recap, the journey the bottles of camel milk traveled before arriving at my house was:

Holland to Bolton
Bolton to Leeds
Leeds back to Bolton
Bolton to London depot
London depot to my house

What an effort - but it will be all worth it! If you feel like you would like to donate to my campaign, please click here.