A fishy story
Jason, 42, has haemophilia and he received a TravelFactor award towards the cost of his special trip. TravelFactor awards up to £500 every quarter towards any trip that has a unique place in your heart - a trip that's taken by a person with haemophilia or parents of a child with haemophilia.
As a consequence of severe haemophilia A, heavy bleeds when I was a boy, and, in later life, knee replacement surgery, restricted movement and arthritis in several joints, there are not many sports I've been able to enjoy. Watch with avid enthusiasm, yes, but actually participate - well, you could say my options are limited. You might feel a tug at your heartstrings right about now and I can well imagine the sympathetic "Ahhh" beginning to form, but I'm going to tell you to please give it a rest.
Because I can do, and quite well at that, what I love most - fly-fishing.
I live in South Wales with all its beautiful mountains, rivers, lakes and reservoirs and am a member of most local fishing clubs. I've entered the local fishing competition many times before - the winner gets to compete in the national Trout Master fly-fishing competition. This year, after many years participating in my local fish-off, I actually won. I was going to the finals! To compete against all the regional winners in the country. I was beside myself with excitement.
The unhappy realisation
It then dawned on me with a sinking heart - the finals included a 3-day practice trial on the water and then the final competition, which meant I would need accommodation and fishing tackle for around 4 days. To say this kind of event was going to be pretty costly would be an understatement. After all these years of striving to win the local competition so I could go to the finals and compete against the best fly fishermen in the country, when I finally had the opportunity - would I have to stay at home?
Ray of hope
I was disheartened, but not completely devoid of hope. This unexpected spurt of optimism was thanks to the nurse in-charge at the Cardiff haemophilia centre. I had inquired earlier if there was anybody who might consider sponsoring me. She had heard of TravelFactor doing sponsorships and suggested they would be willing to help with my trip, so she told me to write a letter explaining the situation and its special circumstances. As it usually turns out with nurses, she was right! I was so thrilled when I got the call - they had agreed to pay for the whole trip. I couldn't be more grateful to TravelFactor: my wife and I were going to Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire!
The best part of it all
Triumphant now with two victories under my belt, I felt a new confidence for the finals. With the seven boxes of Factor VIII that I had got from the haemophilia centre safely stored in the fridge of my log cabin, I was all set to catch some fish. Monday, the day of the final competition, was divided into two parts. The morning part, which consisted of fishing on the boat, went well. That is being rather modest, considering I caught five fish weighing 14.8 pounds in total! What's more I was announced in 3rd place for the morning round! I was shocked, here I was just glad to actually make it to the finals and now I was 3rd among 186 of the best fly fishers in the country! I simply couldn't stop smiling.
Of course, there was still the afternoon session to be conquered. But, I did know this fabulous spot with a lot of fish and I was in the top three in the morning - I didn't have a worry in the world.
Reality bites
You know the jumping-with-fish spot I knew? Well, turns out everybody knew it - better than me. They were also faster than me, so I was just in time to observe it fill up with a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd - already fishing. Suddenly, as I was tumbling back to earth, I realised all the other good places had obviously gone - and didn't manage to catch a single fish all afternoon.
All's well
I went from 3rd to 46th overall in the evening by the time the disastrous second round was over. I did take comfort in the fact that there were people who qualify every year and they hadn't made it to the top 50 in all that time, but I had at my very first chance.
Do I have anything to say to others with haemophilia?
Firstly, I'd tell the younger generations to be very grateful about the standard of treatment we have today. I'd tell them to take care of themselves and use their medications diligently - all we ever had was cryo and bed rest. Then I'd say don't second guess yourself when you're entering any kind of competition just because you have haemophilia - you never know when you might just come out top.
