Adrian Baker - Cycling To Success

This story originally featured on MyRoyalMail on 5 February 2021

After a severe illness led Adrian Baker away from the job he loved as a delivery office manager in Gloucestershire, he used his recovery time wisely - by taking a gap year and returning to his studies. In conversation with Paul Smith, Adrian discusses the seriousness of his condition, putting time away to good use, a brush with Royalty and an emotional challenge ahead.

In 1979, aged 14, Adrian Baker cycled on his favourite Raleigh bike from his hometown in Cheltenham to Anglesey – and back – to raise money for his local church. More than four decades on, he is planning to do the same again to help colleagues in need suffering domestic abuse in lockdown, which would be a remarkable feat given his own journey in recent months.

The delivery office manager, with more than 20 years of service for Royal Mail, is currently on a gap year from the company. It’s helping him to recover from a serious illness. After suffering for many years with pain in his body – and an earlier diagnosis of ME – Adrian discovered he had cauda equina syndrome. This rare and severe type of spinal stenosis compresses the nerves in the lower back and requires emergency treatment as needed.

‘It’s pretty horrible,’ says Adrian, who most recently held the position as Tewkesbury Delivery Office’s manager. ‘I didn’t know what it was and had lots of diagnoses before this was finally revealed. It’s a little-known disease and I was seriously ill.

‘Physiotherapy is helping me massively. I am very thankful to be getting the right help now. Just before the first lockdown, I went to Cheltenham General Hospital and saw a fantastic person called Becky Cook. She is keeping me going with easing the pain. It won’t go away, but it is easing.’

Indeed, so grateful to Becky is Adrian, that he donated a recent gift he received from Royal Mail for helping to prepare Cirencester Delivery Office for the visit by His Royal Highness Prince Charles.

‘As part of the gap year, you have to go back into Royal Mail for a fortnight,’ explains Adrian. ‘I went in to help with Christmas and was asked to stay on to help Cirencester prepare for the Royal visit. I helped to decorate the office and must have gone to around 30 shops looking for some tinsel the night before!

‘I held the door open for him as he left the office and you can see me in the background on a picture that made the Daily Mail! It was an honour to be there.

‘I was given a bottle of wine but took it to Becky as a small token of thanks for the work they are doing. Not long after I went to see her for the first time, her department went into the fight against Covid-19. The whole department shut down. They have seen things nobody should see. I wish I could give something to everyone there.’

As with all walks of life, the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a negative impact. It’s the case, too, with Adrian’s quest to improve his technological skills. He is working through an HNC Computing course at Gloucestershire College. He hopes it will help him when he’s back behind a desk in whichever delivery office comes next.

‘The gap year was partly for me to recover but also for me to further my education,’ he says. ‘I am 55 and completely missed any lessons on computers when I was at school. Everything I have learnt has been through working at Royal Mail. Things are moving so fast that my generation has to get up to speed.

‘I have missed my job, so being able to go to college was fantastic. Sadly, due to Covid-19, it is all done virtually now and probably will be for the rest of the course – which is a shame.’

Adrian is due to finish the course on 4 June, exactly two months before his planned return to work.

‘I’ve missed the job since minute one,’ he admits. ‘I can’t wait to get back. It’s a fulfilling job – very busy. You get to see all walks of life and being away from it hasn’t been easy.

‘I am not sure which office I’ll be going back to, but I hope I’ll be back as a delivery office manager in Gloucestershire before long.’

Before then, Adrian hopes to go full circle with a return to the saddle and his memorable 400-mile ride from Cheltenham to Anglesey and back. Armed with his own motivations, he aims to do this – Covid-19 guidelines permitting – on a Raleigh bike of the same vintage he used as a 14-year-old! He plans to pledge the money he raises to the Rowland Hill Fund.

‘I want to help any colleagues who have suffered harm during these difficult times,’ he said. ‘If I can raise anything – even £50 or £100 – I hope I can make a difference to someone.

'As a dyslexic myself, if you are having domestic abuse the reporting of it is very hard, and if I can help any fellow dyslexics in this terrible situation with the money I raise then that is great and fulfilling thing to do.'