john Stockwell, a fellow member of the Ducati Owners Club (SA) is planning to ride around Australia (twice) to raise money and awareness for Parkinson's disease.  John himself is diagnosed with Parkinsons and realises this may be his last chance to have a crack at this before the disease robs him of the lifeling dream.  He departs Adelaide on Feb 16, heading east.  John is asking for 3 things from the public:

- Donations for Parkinsons research and support for families/carers of sufferers.

- support through accommodation (hosting him along the way).

- motivational support - fellow motorcyclists (of all makes) to join him on a leg of his journey, as long or as short as they wish.  

  

Good on him! How do we know where he'll be once the journey starts?

I wouldn't mind riding alongside a bit but how do we find out?

 

 

I was expecting that question, but don't have a good answer yet. I don't think John has a good answer for it yet either since he's an older bloke and I suspect not tech savvy to work out an efficient way of updating his location and progress. I don't know him that well but it does seem he is a bit of a spontaneous fella, so I don't think even he knows what timeframe he wants to achieve this in.

I am going to talk to him tomorrow about using a SPOT gps tracker or similar. And a way of providing that position via a website or Facebook.

Update: I have decided to sponsor John by buying him a satellite tracking device and setting up an interactive map website where people can see his location and track his progress, like the screenshot below.  It will be updated live every 30 mins via a satellite uplink, that way he is not relying on mobile phone coverage.  It will also act as an emergency beacon (SOS button).  It is also has a "help I'm broken down" button that will deliver an email message via satellite to Ducati Australia with his GPS location.  

So when his ride starts mid-February it will all be up and running.  

I'll probably do a review of the device a bit later as it could be a handy tool for people travelling  in remote locations, or those that want to keep family updated on their location while road tripping. 

Please keep us in the loop, great cause! Same as others would love to keep him company for a few klm on his run through Qld.

Yeah, thanks for that update. Keep us in the loop ay. I'll tip in a donation so let us know how. Good on him!!

EDIT: OK I just saw the donation link thing on that piece of paper.

 

 

Feb 16 update:

John has started his ride today from Adelaide.   Here is the tracking website where you can see his real time position: 

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0jYjFtQEWZ6j77MabW4BIhtvttYjv3Vhq

If you are at Philip Island this coming weekend for the World Superbike's you will find John in the main Pavilion looking after an information stand for Parkinson's.  After that he will be heading up the east coast of Australia.  

He has a website for donations.  The money raised goes straight to Parkinson's research, it is not funding his ride.  Somebody asked me to clarify that, it was a fair query:

http://give.everydayhero.com/au/the-ride-of-my-life-for-parkinsons

I notice that Johns GPS plotter is not working anyone have an update?

Hmmm? just used the link supplied and John seems to be heading back over the top (Broome to Darwin?). Hope all's goin well with the tour.