The story about how I came to be here, travelling about the country in my little car visiting Golden post boxes, is the result of a combination of different events. On the face of it, I guess I'm just doing something that I've always wanted to do - I love this country and the amazing diversity of scenery on offer, and have always said that one day I will go on tour. I even planned to go on foot, years ago. But that turned out to be very, very expensive once you add up the costs of everything. Not to mention the blisters! So instead, last year a chain of events fell in such a way that I decided to go now, and try to raise some money for a worthy charity, close to the hearts of my family and me.

Late in 2007 my aunt, Christine ("Chris"), flew over to England from her home in America to visit her family. She came complete with a walking stick. Despite being only 52 years old she had suddenly become a little unsteady on her feet. Nobody really knew what was wrong with her, and it didn't bother her all that much. It certainly didn't stop her mucking in with jobs to be done: my mum (her sister) and dad had not long completed a log cabin and Chris spent a day helping my dad install all of the kitchen units. I'm really glad of that, because every time I open one of those cupboards to grab a bite to eat I can remember my aunt in the way I should always remember her. I digress. Aunty Chris was a very practical, hands-on woman who didn't let problems get in her way. In life she had worked as a paramedic, a police woman and a senior nurse, amongst other things.

As time passed her condition became worse, and eventually a diagnosis was settled upon - she had ALS, known more commonly to use Brits as Motor Neurone Disease. Thanks to technology and the care of her family, Aunty Chris was able to visit here, to see her mother and the rest of her family, several times in the five years she lived with this illness. Her mother and sister also took trips over to America to see her and care for her there whenever they could. Times were tough, and the strain on all of the family was visible. In fact, towards the end of her battle with this disease I was teaching near Reading, and given the workaholic nature I have, and the sudden realisation of the importance of spending time with my family, I decided to step back from teaching and return to Royal Mail as a postman, moving closer to home, back to my university city of Oxford. It was a move filled with mixed feelings: regret, since I miss teaching and happiness for having the time to be more available for my family.

Five years after that unsteady-on-her-feet visit, on the 9th November 2012, Christine passed away in a hospice in America, with her loving husband and sister with her to the end.

When Aunty Chris moved into that hospice, I decided to start writing postcards to her on a regular basis. I'm terrible with emails as anybody will tell you, so being a postman I thought perhaps writing a postcard and sending it off would be harder to forget! In the summer of 2012 the Royal Mail decided to produce a stamp for every team GB gold medal in the Olympic and Paralympic games, and to paint a post box gold for every Team GB athlete who won Gold. When I was a child my aunt had sent me some Olympic merchandise from Atlanta 1996, so I thought it would be a good idea to send a postcard for each stamp produced from London 2012. She collected modern stamps from Royal Mail, so these would help with her collection as well. Sadly my timing was out and I never did get to send a single postcard using these stamps before she died.

I wanted to do something to remember my Aunt. I wanted to make use of these stamps (I had two lots - one for my random London 2012 collection, and one for using for mail). I wanted to tour the country. And I wanted to raise a little money for the MNDA - a UK charity that funds research into Motor Neurone Disease as well as providing practical advice and support for sufferers and their families in this country. Whenever Aunty Chris visited us here, they were on hand to help, and Chris was really happy to speak with them and with other sufferers, casually chatting once about who had the biggest wheelchair! So I decided to book a couple of weeks off work (sadly I could not get two consecutive weeks) and make this tour. Hopefully, in Top Gear style, I will complete it all in my clapped-out 1993 registered Peugeot 205 turbo diesel, just to prove there's plenty of life left in her. I mean it.

If you want to give your support towards this wonderful charity, I would be really grateful if you could visit this page - I've used bmycharity as the online medium for donating money because compared to other giving sites, like justgiving and virgin money giving, more of your money actually gets to the charity. Please show your support in this way if you can. If not then you can post a message on my facebook page (and like it of course), or if you want to follow me on twitter!

Thanks for reading this far, if you made it! I can ramble on sometimes...
Peace