Kindness Amidst the Conflict

Tahverlee [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Bike Life podcast by Warmshowers foundation, where we will be sharing knowledge, experience, tools, and stories of touring cyclists and hosts from around the world. I'm Tahverlee, the woman behind the scenes at Warmshowers foundation, the leading platform for cyclists looking for hosts and to connect with a passionate international community. Find out more by visiting us at Warmshowers.org. Now, onto the show.

Jerry Kopack [00:00:40]:
Hello, and welcome to bike life. This is Jerry Kopack. And if you don't recognize my voice, I'm the new host taking over the reins from Tahverlee. But don't worry. Tahverlee is still here as our executive director, but she's focused in her time on making your experiences as hosts and travelers even better. A little bit about me. I've been the finance guy for Warmshowers for about 5 years. And when I'm not building spreadsheets, you'll find me hosting bike travelers in my home in Breckenridge, Colorado, or maybe on my own bike journey somewhere else in the world.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:09]:
Today, I'm talking to Jerry Gore who at the age of 62 and living with type 1 diabetes, wrote from his home in London through Europe to Kyiv, Ukraine to raise funds for children also living with type 1 diabetes near the front lines in Ukraine. Hey, Jerry. Welcome to bike life.

Jerry Gore [00:01:27]:
Hi, Jerry. Good to good to good to talk to you.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:30]:
Where am I finding you today?

Jerry Gore [00:01:33]:
So I'm, I'm here in the southern French Alps.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:36]:
Oh, okay.

Jerry Gore [00:01:37]:
So we're like 3 hours south of Chamonix, 3 hours north of Marseille. So we're we're pretty close to the sea, and we're right in the mountains.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:47]:
Wow. I wanna come back to that. But first, I want to process and unpack what I just said about your experience, because I have so many questions. So, maybe let's start with the basics. So for everyone out there who's listening who may not know what type 1 diabetes is, can you give us a little bit of, intel on that?

Jerry Gore [00:02:11]:
Sure. So, type 1 is an autoimmune condition. It's nothing to do with, the way you live your life. It's everything to do with, a virus attacking your pancreas, which secretes a hormone called insulin and killing it. That hormone, insulin, allows the sugar in your blood to then go into the organs where you need it. If you don't have insulin on board, the you can have as much sugar in your body, but it won't get to where you need it. It means that you have to manually control your blood sugar, and it means, in my case, I stick a needle in myself 6 or 7 times a day. Some people have pumps, some people have, closed loop systems, but most people in the world can't afford those systems, so they stick a needle in their body and inject insulin manually.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:15]:
Wow. That is incredible. 6 to 7 times a day?

Jerry Gore [00:03:21]:
So I have 2 different types of insulin. I have a fast acting, which has a duration of 12 hours, so I inject that in the morning and in the evening, and then I'll have fast acting, which basically I'll inject pretty much every time I eat. And if I snack, if I'm cycling, I'm injecting a lot. So like, the last big bike pack I did, we're eating 5,000 calories a day. I'm injecting a lot.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:47]:
Wow. Wow. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. So if you don't mind, when were you diagnosed?

Jerry Gore [00:03:58]:
So I was diagnosed on January 31, 2001. I was diagnosed late onset. Most people who get type 1 are children, and they are diagnosed between roughly 5 15 years old. Sometimes as young as 2 or 3 months old, sometimes as old as 18 years old, but 5 to 15 is is the norm. And, doctors and researchers still don't know why you get die type 1 diabetes. But the first thing to say is there's 500,000,000 diabetics in the world. Only 10% of them are type 1. The vast majority are type 2, which is a lifestyle condition when your pancreas still works, but because of sedentary habits and bad food and not taking exercise, then, you know, you you have insulin resistance.

Jerry Gore [00:04:49]:
And eventually, type twos, unless they can really discipline themselves and change their lifestyle, start injecting insulin the same as type 1.

Jerry Kopack [00:04:59]:
Wow. Okay. So it sounds like you're maybe an outlier because you were diagnosed late onset. The majority of the people are diagnosed much younger.

Jerry Gore [00:05:10]:
You're you're phoning from the states. Let's give you some numbers. 50 percent of all adults over 50 in America have type 2 diabetes. Type 1 is still very small numbers. It's growing. It's growing because of reasons we don't really understand, but for for sure, in my case, it was stress was a major contributing factor. And, and the trouble is, you know, if if you have the condition sorry, if you have all the equipment in a in a country like the States or France or Germany where they have good health care systems, you take the insulin with a bit of counseling, little bit of help, little support, you can live a full life. And many people do.

Jerry Gore [00:05:55]:
In the countries where I help and operate, life expectancy is 6 months or less. And so if you're in a country like, say, Cambodia or, say, Myanmar, you get type 1 and you're not privileged, you don't have money, you're gonna die within 6 months.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:14]:
Okay. I just need to pause right there. So 6 months?

Jerry Gore [00:06:20]:
And and with these kids and the things that, this kind of part of my ride Ukraine cycling story. But, yeah, I got my diagnosis in 2,001. In 2,006 I'm I'm a professional mountaineer. I'm a mountain guide. I'm the only type 1 diabetic Himalayan mountain guide, and, around the the early noughties, I was trying to climb the hardest extreme rock or ice wall on each of the 6 continents. And the biggest rock wall in Africa is in Madagascar. 2006, I'm in Madagascar. We've just done this 900 meter wall.

Jerry Gore [00:06:58]:
In your world, it's like 513 plus, very, very small edges. It's all about your feet. We do this wall, all brilliant. And then at the end of the climb, our local guide, the guy who's running our our trip, he took us to a local market. Incredible culture shock, but I won't bore you with a lot of details, but one of the main things that stood out to me was I met a woman there who was selling some vegetables. When I say vegetables, I'm talking about a 3 or 4 foot square tarpaulin with maybe 4 tomatoes, a couple of onions, maybe, maybe a cucumber. She would sell that for 2 US dollars, and she would then feed her and her 4 children for the next week until the following Saturday when there was another market where she might make another $2. And then I realized it just hit me in this kind of tipping point moment.

Jerry Gore [00:08:00]:
You get type 1 in a country like that, that's a death sentence. You're not going to survive. It it it costs a lot of money, 100 of dollars if not 1,000 each year to keep someone with type 1 diabetes, alive. Children in America, often many are on insulin pumps. Those start at $5,000. It's an expensive condition, right, if you want to really medicate it well and treat it well. So these kids just on, you know, I mean, when you walk around, a market like that in in Madagascar, you've got more money in your pocket just with your phone and your wallet and your camera than these people will ever make in a year, ever. And so, yeah, you realize there's a death sentence.

Jerry Gore [00:08:48]:
So so that's kind of where I started thinking that, yeah, my climbs were no more for, just for myself and for creating records. I got speed record and climbing records and I've opened new routes on 6 continents. They were for raising money to help impoverished children with type 1. That takes us, that takes us past 2,006. Then, in 2015, I teamed up with my oldest friend. We're in the Green Berets together, a guy called Charles Toomey, and we created a foundation called Action for Diabetes to help impoverished children with type 1 in Southeast Asia, where Charlie lives. He's a healthcare professional, big business guru. So I started doing challenges.

Jerry Gore [00:09:37]:
But the first challenge I did to raise money was I had the speed ascent, or I made a speed ascent of the north face of the Eiger. This is like the biggest iconic north face in the world. It's 2,000 meters, vertical mixed snow and ice. We did this face, it normally takes 3 days, we did it in 7 hours 56 minutes, and and I'm going, okay, that's great. But it just you know, I've been climbing for decades, and it's just like, yeah, I've kind of done the ultimate. What is there? And I then I started cycling because it was just an obvious thing to do. I live in the southern French Alps. The Tour de France comes through my valley every year.

Jerry Gore [00:10:18]:
Everybody cycles here. I got on 2 2 wheels and I just loved it. I loved mountain biking. I loved, gravel. I loved road cycling. And then, the end of 2,000 15, I did a boucles desecres crown. We raised 10,000 US dollars, 360 kilometers inside 24 hours. Then 2016, I got in traverse of the French Alps.

Jerry Gore [00:10:41]:
We raised more money, and so it went on. And, and then we kind of get to, like, 2021. I team up with my oldest friend, Rick Allen, and we want to climb k2. I've always wanted to climb k2. I've sort of I've done a lot of cycling, but, you know, my group roots are mountains, big mountains. And tragically on k 2, we're trying a new route. Rick died in an avalanche. So Oh.

Jerry Gore [00:11:12]:
I haven't raised the money I wanted to do, I wanted to raise. I failed. I've lost my best friend. I'm destroyed. And my whole sort of climbing, adventure world, it was already kind of stopping, but it just came crumbling down. Then we get to, 2022, Ukraine invasion. But also I did a thing called the Grand Traverse and which is a mountain bike traverse across the Southern Alps, and I did that in 2,022 and I really loved it. But by now, I'm starting to develop a condition which is basically leading to a new hip.

Jerry Gore [00:11:54]:
And I found it really hard to walk, but cycling was still really good. At the end of 2 1022, I cycled across East Coast, West Coast, Costa Rica because my daughter lives out there and she works out there. So me and my wife went out there to to see her. We did the cycle. Loved it. And then I'm thinking, okay, 2023, I want to raise money for children. What What am I gonna do? And the whole Ukraine thing was kicking off. I've got a lot of contacts in the country.

Jerry Gore [00:12:24]:
My mom's Czech vac Czechoslovakian. We've got a lot of east east European family. Although, she's actually got an American passport. That's a long story. And, so, yeah. At the end of, August 2023, I get on my bike with 1 guy called Paul Buckley. Out of all the people and I spoke to 100, the only guy who put his hand up was Paul. Paul had never done this sort of thing before.

Jerry Gore [00:12:52]:
Frankly, I hadn't done a big distance like this. It's 3,200, kilometers. We get on our bikes, we start from London, and we had a few friends to say goodbye. My mom text me saying I love you. I said I love you too, and I hope I live to, to say I still love you at the end of it. And off we go. It took us 25 days and I absolutely fell in love with it. Every day was different.

Jerry Gore [00:13:18]:
And the front line in a war torn country in Europe, people just reached out to us and they just helped. We had some people who didn't like us so much and you're riding with a big t shirt saying ride Ukraine and, yeah, I've got to say we had some people who tried to knock us off our bikes and cause cause us harm, but, you know, luckily, Paul's a big guy, and I'm a pretty fast guy. So, you know, we we we overtook we got out of some trouble there. But then we got into Ukraine. And and I'm kind of almost crying as I tell you about this, Jerry. The welcome and the support in the big cities, but in the little rural communities where people see you sweating on a bike, and they know you've come across Europe to help them. It's emotional. Right? It's emotional for us, but it's really emotional for these people who are literally being bombed to death.

Jerry Gore [00:14:15]:
I'm gonna tell you right now, last Monday this week, the major child pediatric hospital in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, which Paul and I visited, which we relentlessly blown up, destroyed by Russian shelling. Not a news story. Since since that war, there's been, I've got the numbers here, 1300, different attacks on medical institutions across Ukraine, and and it just outlines the evilness of this regime that's trying to destroy, destroy Ukraine. Anyway, we did the cycle ride. We had an amazing experiences. We raised a lot of money, and, and we did our our bit. But it's kind of all through the magic and the power and and the fun. And, you know, sometimes I gotta say the danger of cycling.

Jerry Gore [00:15:20]:
It was just an emotional, emotional, trip. And and kind of put that in perspective, Jerry, I've been climbing mountains since 1977. When I was 16, I summited Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, and I've been doing this stuff all for for my life. I've been in special forces military. I've broken my neck twice. I did a new route in the Canadian Rockies when I was directly struck by lightning with my partner Warren Hollinger. We did a new route, in the bugaboos and the Canadian rockies. You know, I've been through the grill.

Jerry Gore [00:15:53]:
Right? But this cycle ride is relentlessly hard. You're doing, I'm sorry, I'm in kilometers, not miles, but we're doing a 150 to 200 kilometers a day. I'm sticking needles in myself. I'm eating lots of different food. My sugar's going up, they're going down. But there's this incredible feeling of, you've got to do it. You've got to get there. You've got to get to Kyiv.

Jerry Gore [00:16:14]:
You've got to get to the capital of Ukraine, and you've gotta do your bit. And I'm just so thankful I could do it on 2 2 wheels because I just love that experience. And, Warmshowers helped me a lot right across Europe. I mean, I don't know if you know, but Warmshowers is very strong in the countries we roadshow. So these are

Jerry Kopack [00:16:33]:
sort of

Jerry Gore [00:16:33]:
the biggest cycling, you know, countries in the world. We're talking France, we're talking Belgium, we're talking Holland, we're talking Germany. These are big cycling countries.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:41]:
Yeah. Western

Jerry Gore [00:16:42]:
Europe. All shout hosts. Right? And, anyway, it was great. I'll shut up now.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:49]:
So I have so many questions. First off, it sounds like you have done a ton of extensive research just knowing the facts and the data of how many people are afflicted across Europe and in the United States even. So that's that's amazing. And for those people who may not know, there is no cure for type 1 diabetes. Correct? There's only management of symptoms.

Jerry Gore [00:17:15]:
Pretty much. There's stem cell research. Some people have had, artificial pancreasies inserted. It hasn't worked well. Okay.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:25]:
A

Jerry Gore [00:17:25]:
lot of very privileged people in countries like America or France or Britain have closed loop systems, which effectively is like an external pancreas. It's to do with a blood tester and an insulin pump, and it's controlled by an application on your phone. But these are rare and they're expensive. For most of the world, just, you know, there's plenty of Americans who find it tough to afford to buy insulin. It's it's not a cheap drug, and, of course, pharmaceuticals, you know, put put their mark on it. But, you know, that's in America, which is, as we know, one of the the great powers of the world. There's so many countries that have no money and where insulin is just they can't get access to it. And that's really why we set up Action for Diabetes because we're in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, where, you know, insulin, if you don't have money, is almost impossible to get.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:24]:
Sure. Yeah. So I've I've also been to Madagascar, and I've cycled through there, and it was an incredible experience. The the people that I met, the landscape, everything was just beautiful. Everyone treated me with the utmost kindness and hospitality. But to your point, it doesn't it doesn't really make affordable health care or any real significant health care, the kind that we're used to in this in the western part of the world available. And so I can see where you would say that if someone was diagnosed with diabetes in, say, Madagascar, it most likely would be a death sentence. And so I kinda wanna scroll back a little bit.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:05]:
I know that with the onset of the of the war in in Ukraine, beyond that, what made you want to focus on Ukraine and the and the children there out of any other place in the world, say, Madagascar where you had already had been?

Jerry Gore [00:19:19]:
So it's a really good question. And I think the answer is, that war in Ukraine is a many Europeans feel it's our war. So you've got a nation fighting for us. Right? And this nation is not full of, like, you know, American marines. This nation is full of accountants, barristers, farm workers, normal people, right, who are now shooting, you know, technical, guns and firing drones and trying to beat a sophisticated and huge world force, and it's unfair. It's really unfair. And, and behind that, I had a lot of experience because of my training in the marines and also because of, you know, I've been to Russia. And I've, you know, I I know something of these countries.

Jerry Gore [00:20:14]:
It's just a corrupt evil force, and I don't wanna go on about it. But, you know Mhmm. I I've had a lot of experience in Russia and and I've had a lot of experience with different types of Russians. And, you know, it's just unfair. This is like David against Goliath, you know. And it's just I mean, the Russian army is huge. It's over a 1000000 people, and they're, you know, they obviously have massive amount of, their own military. And now they're getting it from North Korea.

Jerry Gore [00:20:45]:
They're getting it from China. And, yeah, I know these sort of conversations can quickly become political. The answer really to your point is I I'm I'm a humanitarian, and I believe in fairness, and I wanna do my bit to make the world a little bit fairer. And, and I just thought, yeah, what was happening in Ukraine is just deeply unfair. They didn't ask to be invaded. They really didn't, and yet they were. People just came in, and you couldn't blame it on NATO or whatever, but normal people did not ask to be invaded. They just didn't, and and it's it's catastrophic.

Jerry Gore [00:21:22]:
It affects every part of that country. And so my heart goes out to the people I can really relate to. So that's the type 1 diabetes. So I start I I did a lot of talks in Ukraine, I'm talking to mothers and and a few fathers, but most of the fathers on the front line about the effect of the war on their children. So they're telling me like, yeah, a normal sort of like evening activity about midnight is the the air air air raids that sirens go off, They bundle their kids up into warm clothing, often, you know, because if it's in winter, it's freezing. They go downstairs into bunkers under the apartment block where they live. They put nappies on their 11 or 12 year old kids because these kids are just so frightened and they're weighing themselves and everything. And then they have to keep themselves warm by literally lighting metal stones.

Jerry Gore [00:22:14]:
There's no electricity. There's nothing. There's bombs all around them, and and that's their daily evening kind of like reality. And, you know, you kind of compare that to how we live in the West with our Netflix and our YouTubes and our comfort eating and our, you know, access to all sorts of food whenever we want it. It's just a totally different world.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:40]:
Yeah. I I can't imagine what that experience must have been like.

Tahverlee [00:22:46]:
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Jerry Kopack [00:23:33]:
So when you were planning your your trip to to Ukraine, was there a certain route that you were looking towards? Because I know that you said you were doing 200 kilometers a day, which is 120 miles a day for people not on the metric system. Those are those are big chunks and miles that you're that you're riding through. What was your route like getting to Ukraine?

Jerry Gore [00:23:55]:
We're always going to try and go on we always went on small roads. You gotta avoid the big ones. There's just 2 of us. There's no support. There's no cars, backup, or anything. It's just 2 guys, and, and we basically go right across the center of Europe. So that's 8 different countries. So in a nutshell, we go London to Dover.

Jerry Gore [00:24:16]:
We then jump on a ferry that takes us across to, the, the West Coast of France. We ride up the Cote Marais team into Belgium, then, through the northern northeastern end of Holland right the way across Central Germany into, Czech Republic down to Prague. That's where my grandmother was born. And then we come out of the bottom end of Prague up straight into southern Poland heading for Auschwitz. I really wanted to go and visit Auschwitz. It seems a bit grim, but I think everybody in the world should go to Auschwitz. We went to Auschwitz, we then went to Katowice, Krakow, straight across to the Polish Ukraine border, and then it got spicy because, we've already done, like, you know, 2,800 kilometers. And then, of course, you hit Ukraine, and it's just a different world.

Jerry Gore [00:25:19]:
The roads are actually still pretty good, but there's a lot of traffic on them, and it could be tanks, it could be lorries, it could be cars trying to get into the ambulances, all sorts of stuff. There's a lot of traffic. And I gotta say, Ukrainian drivers, not the best. I gotta be honest, but they're in a war, so, you know, fair Sure. Fair play. And, and then as soon as we got to Lviv, which is the western part of Ukraine, it's the safest city, if you like, in Ukraine. Still gets bombed, but, you know, it's the safest. Then we picked up our incredible semi pro Ukrainian cycling guide called Alex.

Jerry Gore [00:26:01]:
Alex is a pro cyclist. He is an incredible person. He is a great speaker, translator. I found him through, through the Internet. And then, I also met up with doctor Irina Vasensko. She's the vice president of the International Diabetes Federation. She is Ukrainian. She helped coordinate this whole plan.

Jerry Gore [00:26:24]:
We did lots of talks and interviews, in Lviv, and then slowly we make our way right into the center of the country to Kyiv, and avoiding the bombshells and and and and, you know, just really trying to keep it together because it's it's, yeah, it's dangerous. And, the air raid fountain sorry. The air raid, sirens are constantly going off. And, yeah, it's, it it's a it's an amazing country, but at the same time, it's a country at war. And I think you have to respect that and you have to respect your own safety. You have to carry certain equipment, like torn in case of damage or bombs or what have you, and you have to only cycle during the day, and and cycle fast.

Jerry Kopack [00:27:24]:
I'm trying to process how intense that must have felt. I'm feeling stressed just listening to your story, and I'm nowhere near your your story. So wow. What was the what was the morale of the people that you encountered? And, yeah, Did you ever feel in any way in danger? Like, maybe you shouldn't be there. Like, maybe this isn't the place to be or the right time.

Jerry Gore [00:27:55]:
Well, it's interesting you say that. And I'm, you know, as you probably guess, a very open person. So I'm very up for criticism. I'm very up for did I do the right thing? Do I do the wrong thing? I'm, I'm someone who's carried guilt around for most of my life because, you know, I feel I've had an incredibly good life. I'm very fortunate in so many ways. So I just feel guilty. I don't know. It's just part of my DNA, I guess.

Jerry Gore [00:28:17]:
But, so some people okay. I'm going to say, one person said, will you just leave them alone? The last thing they want is 2 bloody cyclists going through their country. They've got a war to fight. Why are you there? Right? That was that was kind

Jerry Kopack [00:28:30]:
of my thought.

Jerry Gore [00:28:31]:
Yeah. And and I think it is a fair question, but you gotta go to Ukraine. These people need support. And when they see 2 cyclists, you know, we were cycling through parts of Ukraine where you see more horses and carts than you see cars. Right? And you stop off at a shop. And I've got my guide Alex with us and we're dressed in ride Ukraine and we go in there to buy some fruit or some vegetables or in my case, some Snickers bars or some some chocolates and fast acting carbs. And they go, well, what what are you doing? And he explains, I'm emotional even as I tell you, Jerry. But when you see women crying because they know what you've done for them, you go, yeah, we're in the right place.

Jerry Gore [00:29:15]:
We're doing the right thing. And, of course, my main thing was to raise awareness about a chronic health condition. The number or the incidence of children with type 1 diabetes since the start of the war, and I've got direct evidence and proof for what I'm gonna tell you, since the start of the war has skyrocketed. As I told you, type 1 is, one of the major contributors is stress. And you can imagine 11 year old boy who's now taught talking to his girlfriend or his friend, another 12 year old girl, another 12 year old, young young person in Buchta and where the where the Russians directly attack very close to Kyiv. And she said, I'm naked. I'm in front of Russians. I probably won't see you again.

Jerry Gore [00:30:10]:
Now, you know, that stress is enormous. And just just wake being waking up regularly, you know, 5 year old, 7 year old kid woken up at 2 o'clock in the morning, and they just have to bundle their stuff. It could be minus 20 outside minus 20 degrees centigrade outside. They get their stuff. They go down, and they're hearing the bombs. And they're and they're lighting a fire, and they're huddling and and and trying to keep warm just to survive. And that's happening weekly. So that's the reason that, you know, we wanted to go there to draw awareness to this condition and to the fact that, yeah, Russians are not just killing Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian civilians, Ukrainian people.

Jerry Gore [00:30:55]:
They're killing Ukrainian children and giving them conditions that they will have for the rest of their life. They're destroying the nature. I mean, they've destroyed dams. They've ruined a third of the country. I mean, it's it's taken a country like Ukraine, which was beautiful, and then just going, do you know what? Yeah. This is full of history, and we're just gonna bomb the hell out of it. And the thing that really got to me, and it's just a small story, but it just resonated. I'm married.

Jerry Gore [00:31:25]:
I don't know if you're married, but, you know, most people who get married, they have a honeymoon. Right? Where did Putin, who invaded Ukraine, have his honeymoon in Ukraine? And it's, like, so sick, so evil, so bad. And so, yeah, I wanted to reach out, and I think we did do some good things. We did a lot of talks. We did we raised a lot of support. We raised money, and and we raised awareness because we were talking to key political figures in Kyiv and going, do you know what? Yeah. You're doing this. You're doing that.

Jerry Gore [00:31:56]:
Don't forget children with type 1 diabetes. This is a really big issue. It's an incredibly difficult condition, and then you put war on it. And I think we did that job pretty well. Thanks to, International Diabetes Federation. Thanks to Irina Bloshenko. Thanks to Paul Buckley. Thanks to our team, you know, and all the people who were blogging for us and and doing Facebook and and WhatsApp and stuff.

Jerry Gore [00:32:21]:
But for me, I can I can sleep well at night thinking, yeah, better that we did that than nothing at all?

Jerry Kopack [00:32:28]:
Good. I I think everything that you're doing is helping to bring awareness to the situation both there and and also in place like Madagascar that you mentioned. So I think this is all a really helpful platform for for your your your direction of where you're trying to take these these these actions. So I wanna kinda pivot this back to to the bicycle touring. And where were you staying along the way at, say, Ukraine? Like So How was that?

Jerry Gore [00:32:59]:
And, again, I'm, you know, I'm very honest. I've got nothing to hide. I talk about bikepacking. There's as you know, there's lots of levels of type of bikepacking Yeah. From, like, taking everything, plus your food and your tent and your fuel to the way we did it. And the way we did it was basically we we stayed through Warmshowers. We stayed at people who would offer us lodgings and that's why Warmshowers was just a godsend for us. But we also stayed sometimes with, diabetic hosts, people who were, who were asking us to talk at conferences and stuff.

Jerry Gore [00:33:35]:
We stayed in a few hotels. But the main accommodation that really helped us as we went across Central Europe was Warmshowers. Sure. And that's one of the reasons that I wanna do this this kind of almost kind of a giving back thank you to Warmshowers because, you know, Paul and I had some great experiences and just people who love bikes, people who love to to support. And, you know, some of these people fished in Germany, they were not just looking after us and doing being good warmshower hosts, but they were also, arranging local TV interviews. Wow. Journalists were writing articles on us and, again, spreading that word because please don't think that all of Europe is united against Putin. They're really divided.

Jerry Gore [00:34:19]:
Some people think, you know, actually, he's okay. Actually, some you know, really, it was the west that caused this war. You know, like I said, we we people try to push us off our bikes and all the rest of it. Generally, we got really good support, but, so we were doing our bit again to sort of change that conversation or at least put it in a direction which, which I think was fairer. You know, so many people we met, you know, they were going, yeah. Putin. Yeah. And Zin Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.

Jerry Gore [00:34:47]:
Yeah. He's just a dictator for the west. You know? And I'm going, okay. Let's let's talk about that, and let's actually get some facts here. Because I have this phrase. I use it all the time. You only know what you know. And we stayed with, for instance, a Russian family in Czech Republic.

Jerry Gore [00:35:06]:
And, yeah, he was convinced that Putin was was acting on behalf of all Russians and he was convinced that, you know, Russia had to defend its borders from the west. He was convinced that Zelensky was just a puppet, and he was convinced that, basically, the west were against Ukraine. And and that was because that's all he that's all he heard. That's all he knew. That was his own story. And, you know, that's basically indoctrination. That's just not

Tahverlee [00:35:35]:
true.

Jerry Gore [00:35:35]:
And, and, yeah, we've all gotta do our bit to say, yeah. Do you know what? Let's look at the facts. Let's look at actually what happened here, and then you'll get somewhere close to, reality.

Jerry Kopack [00:35:46]:
Yeah. Wow. You you definitely sound like you were right there in the thick of things because you have so much real life on the ground knowledge. And I can't imagine what that must have felt like to be there even for the brief time that you're there, let alone the people who are actually living through this on a day to day basis. But I wanna talk about one last thing here, and just sort of give me a really good feel good moment about a situation that you had or someone that you met that just, I don't know, brings a smile to your face even to this day?

Jerry Gore [00:36:22]:
Well, I you know, I'm gonna talk about, Helga who, was a Warmshower host in, in the cent center of Germany. And, we had to do this, I I had to do a talk for, a diabetes, on online forum called DDoC. Basically, German diabetes online com community, DOC standing for, diabetes online community. But it's it's a huge international organization. But we had to wait until, like, 6 o'clock in the evening for my slot. We knew until, like, 6 o'clock in the evening for my slot. We knew the weather was getting bad, and we knew that we had to get to a a city called Cassel, and we knew that there was a storm on the way. So I'm waiting, I'm waiting in this coffee shop.

Jerry Gore [00:37:04]:
Paul's incredibly, patient. He's waiting outside. It's hot, right? And I'm inside, I'm all mic'd up, all ready to go. My bachelor's running out on on my phone but I'm, you know, I'm ready and we wait and we wait and we wait knowing the storm was coming, and we still got like 40, 50 kilometers to ride. Anyway, my time comes up. I do my talk, and then I just run out of the coffee shop. I said, Paul, bike, go. And we went.

Jerry Gore [00:37:31]:
It was it was pretty it was pretty traumatic because, basically, we go straight into a lightning storm, and we're pedaling like mad. We're going really fast. We've got to get to this Warmshower host. We've never been to Kassel. We've never been to this part of the world. We don't speak any German, and it's it's bad weather. And we're on back rows and the lightning's striking. And I can remember, Paul's ahead of me.

Jerry Gore [00:37:51]:
He's gone down the hill. And then between Paul and he's like I'm gonna try and do it in feet. He's like 300 feet, maybe 350 feet ahead of me. Between him and me, everything's black, everything's heavy rain, lightning, a massive male bull all bull's a male. Right. So a massive bull runs across. He's escaped this field. Right? And he's traumatized by the lightning.

Jerry Gore [00:38:24]:
He's broken the wire, and he's running between us. If I'd hit that, that bull going the speed I was going, which is about 35, 40 miles an hour, it was it was steep. That would be it. End of story. And this this ball just comes out of nowhere and, incredibly, it runs right in front of me. I could almost smell this animal. It was massive. I could hear it snorting and pulls ahead.

Jerry Gore [00:38:50]:
He he's he's oblivious to this because, like I said, the the the the bull is running behind him, and then I pass him and he's gone and I'm alive and it's all good. But now I'm freezing and I'm just like and my sugars are low I'm freezing. Pool's freezing. We've got to get in. And, I phoned up, Helga, who's our Warmshowers host. I said, we're coming. We're wet. We need help.

Jerry Gore [00:39:15]:
And she said, we're here. You know, it's so emotional, but when you've got someone in the middle of a place you've never been to, and they're just saying, they're here for you that means so much. That means so much. And we eventually get into Cassel. We find a street, and there she was. She got people lined up. We were meeting and greeting, and we just said, look, we're freezing. We're shaking.

Jerry Gore [00:39:41]:
Can we just have showers? She said, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gave us, gave us towels. We went into the showers. We we we had a couple of shower. We had a shower each, and we just came out. And there was all these Germans just hugging us and and saying welcome and eat and and, you know, relax.

Jerry Gore [00:39:58]:
And you you you just can't buy that stuff. It's just it's just it's just brilliant.

Jerry Kopack [00:40:05]:
Wow. I can't tell you how much I love hearing stories about hospitality and kindness on these shows. Thank you so much for sharing that. And thank you for sharing everything else about type 1 diabetes and your travels and the war with Ukraine. So for anyone who's listening, are there other ways to sort of get involved with your cause, find out what you're doing in the world, or just reach out and drop you a line?

Jerry Gore [00:40:34]:
Yeah. Sure. Well, I've got 2 websites I'll point you in the direction of. My own personal website is jerrygoredot com. So that's jerrygorealtogether. Jerrygore.com. That's my personal website. And then my charity is action, action, number 4, the letter also, the the number 4, diabetes action4diabetes.org.

Jerry Gore [00:40:58]:
So you can find, you can find my charity through that. And, I'm on Facebook, Instagram, all the usuals.

Jerry Kopack [00:41:06]:
Of course. And we're gonna have links to all of those sites on our show notes so people can find those real easy. Alright. Well, Gerry, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today from your home in in France, and thank you for everyone who tuned in to my conversation with Jerry Gore. If you enjoy our show, give us a like, a share on your social channels, or just tell some of your friends. These stories will hopefully inspire you to set off on your own bicycle adventure and maybe make the world feel a little bit smaller, 1 pedal stroke at a time. My name is Jerry Kopack, and until next time, keep riding.

Tahverlee [00:41:45]:
Thank you for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed making it. Wherever you are listening, please leave us a rating and a review as it helps us reach more cyclists and hosts around the world. Visit us at Warmshowers.org to become a part of our community, or on Instagram at warmshowers_org.

Jerry Kopack [00:42:11]:
If you

Tahverlee [00:42:11]:
would like to be a guest on the show or submit a question, please make sure to email us at podcast at Warmshowers.org.