It was going to be a crazy day - I just could sense it! The story of Mike performing the highest gig in the world was just about hitting the news wires and by the time I had dropped Dylan off at school (discussing Alun the bear's travels with Dylan's teacher on the way) my blackberry was buzzing!
I love days like this. It's such an adrenaline rush, following up leads and trying to maximise every moment. I hadn't heard from Mike since early Sunday morning. The line had gone dead. The website www.everestrocks.com was silent. I had no idea what Mike’s circumstances were.
I rushed to the office with Evan in tow and began making calls and firing off emails. In America, news of Mike’s concert had hit the front page of Life section of USA Today! Tomorrow, rumour has it that TV show Good Morning America will cover Everest Rocks. Here in the UK, Radio 5 Live called me to try and arrange a telephone conversation with Mike. The calls went back and forth until we decided to hold off and try again tomorrow. Even the British Armed Forces Radio called for an interview and by early afternoon, I received an email to say that Sky news were keen to speak with Mike. I managed to get hold of Mike at Base Camp and by the time he had said “Hello Dylan, Hello Evan” we lost the contact again. Sky news wasn’t able to make contact but nevertheless ran a feature at 4.30pm showing stills from the Everest Rocks website. It looked very poignant and luckily I was able to catch it on TV live. It was a chaotic moment with the children running riot, Dylan kissing the TV, phones ringing, emails pinging...
Back at home, Wales Today rounded up the programme with a similar news piece to Sky News and I finished up my day emailing and calling as many people as possible to spread the word. Our national Welsh paper was keen to run a big piece tomorrow and download photos of Mike on top of the world with Alun the bear in tow! Unbelievably www.everestrocks.com had crashed under the force of hits and finally after a lot of scraping around I was able to lay my hands on a couple of Base Camp concert photos and email them direct to the journalist, Roland Hughes. Fingers crossed, in time for publication and hot off the press tomorrow.
The best thing about days like this is the team work. Everyone working together to a common cause. Humanity at its best. I’m still working away right now but it’s all worth it.
Mike and I have arranged to attempt a phone call tomorrow at 10am and I already have half a dozen phone interviews set up for him. Katrina (Love Hope Strength UK PR) and I have even planned a day of interviews for Mike on Halloween once he has landed at Heathrow airport!
Whilst the crazy day was spiralling I was lucky enough to have Dylan and Evan sharing in the moment. As Mike smiled down from the TV screen, I noticed a speck of white as Evan beamed back at his virtual Daddy. In the two weeks since Daddy had been away, I realised that Evan is now the proud owner of two front teeth! Time for Daddy to come home.
As Mike said in his last daily blog “the world is sitting up and taking notice……… if this is what we have to do to get the message across to the world then let’s do it again. I am proud to have walked with every single one of you and I would hope to walk with you again in the future. Let’s go home!!!”
Indeed. Come home soon, Daddy. We miss you!