Thanks for visiting my page:

Step back to 12th July 1988 and I underwent open heart surgery to correct a heart defect. The surgery went well and I emerged with a shiny new Artificial Aortic Valve.

Back to the present - My heart valve is still beating strong and I'm going to celebrate by raising vital funds for British Heart Foundation. The Liverpool Nightrider 2019 takes place overnight on 13-14th July 2019 and I'll be cycling a full 100km both around the Wirral and around the city of Liverpool too.

Doing some sums, I reckon in those 31 years my heart valve has given me  over 100,000 beats every single day and something like 1.2 billion beats in total.  As I'm cycling the 100km distance that means each metre of the way I'll be celebrating 12,000 heartbeats.

Of course it's not all about celebrating - it's also about raising money for the British Heart Foundation's research and I'd be so grateful for your support. The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target. Thanks!