Starting this Saturday 7th September, myself and the team (Juliet, Claire, and Andrew) will be embarking on Ride Across Britain, a back-to-back 9-day cycling challenge from Lands End to John O'Groats. We will be riding 100 plus miles a day, with a total of nearly 1000 miles - with 800 other riders.

We are fundraising for Sport in Mind, a charity that runs movement programs (from sports to dancing) to help recovery, positive mental health, and social isolation in young people. I have chosen this charity in honour of James, our much loved son and brother, who died in 2022. He was very active throughout his life and enjoyed coaching tennis and sharing his fitness knowledge with his friends.

It is also a huge part of my life and has been since I took up running in my mid 20s. Understanding the power of fitness to maintain my mental health (and wanting to learn more!) I trained as a Pilates teacher and personal trainer.

I entered the Ride Across Britain the summer before James died. My friends—Juliet, Claire, and Andrew—who I will be cycling alongside encouraged me to continue. Having a long-term goal as enormous as Ride Across Britain gave me something to aim for and helped me to manage my mental health during such a particularly difficult time.