Update, as of 1st June, due to knee injury, some 320 miles in, ride is postponed. Thanks for all your donations so far.

See www.jogle2012.com for full detail.

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I have decided to cycle 900 miles in 15 days. Yes I know it's a recession, blah blah but I am asking you all to dig deep and please show your support for two great causes.

My blog is at www.jogle2012.com and the route can be found on there.

 

I am doing it for GOSH and Macmillan...here's why:

 

My mate, Simon, is one of the nicest blokes you'll ever meet. The type of guy who's always got time for you, would drop everything to help you out and always has a smile on his face. When my wife was suddenly taken ill during pregnancy he was round in 10 minutes to look after the kids (at 11pm) so we could get to hospital. He volunteered to drive the support van for my trip and I am forever indebted to him for this. Simon's daughter has a rare syndrome called McCune Albright's Syndrome and spends a lot of time at GOSH, she's an absolute inspiration.

 

My second charity is MacMillan's. Two reasons for this. The observant ones of you will know that I lost my Dad, aged 47, in 1994, to cancer. Whilst he didn't directly use Macmilan's I have always been amazed at the 'service' they provide for cancer sufferers. The second reason is due to the courage and tenacity of someone I never met. Twitter is a strange beast - I have people I now consider to be good friends, I have made jam for them (seriously), invited one to cook a dinner party for us, swapped (not very witty on my part) anecdotes with them, and bantered around football, family, kids etc...well, just after Benjamin (my second child was born) a twitter friend (Stacie Stewart, her off Masterchef - and dinner party above!) recommended I follow via #ff (on Friday people recommend people they follow with the hashtag #ff or 'follow friday') Jhalmitt (username not her real name - Jay!) who had had her baby two days after we had Benjamin. We immediately hit it off, and became 'twitter friends' (that is a really lame phrase - sorry). A few weeks later Jay mentioned her sister was running Race for Life and would anyone top them up an amount to get to a milestone, and when I read about it I topped up. Don't really know why, I just did. Her sister 'I985' (Amber) was 26 (I think) and was suffering from cancer, despite this she ran the 10k and raised over £9,000 in the process. She was a wonderful, inspiring person, you only had to read her tweet line to understand how happy we all should be with what we've got. Her positivity and that of Jay, and Amber's partner, Fiona truly inspired me to do this ride. There's no happy end to this story - Amber didn't make it and died in late 2011. I never met her but remember the 'chats' we had and her zeal for life.

Read more about this as written by her sister, Jay, here - http://irantheretoo.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/its-all-about-charity-and-my-sister/

I'd be really grateful if when you donate if you could 'top up' the fundraising page which has the least in. Due to the vagaries of Justgiving I can't just get an amount and then split it in half which is ideally what I'd like to do. Or, if you can be bothered please donate half the amount you were going to twice...?

 

Whatever you choose to do it is most appreciated.

Remember: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never share them with anyone or send you unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. They'll make sure Gift Aid (an additional 28%) is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer, too. That means more money goes to the charity, faster, with JustGiving.

So please dig deep and donate now.