In 2020 my brother-in-law Robert Hayes suffered a massive stroke which left him semi-paralysed on his right side and with aphasia -  a disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language. From being a very talkative person he was suddenly unable to speak. With regular sessions with the therapists from Dyscover he is learning to communicate both in speech and writing but he has a long journey of recovery ahead of him.

And I have another long journey starting on Sunday August 7th. I am cycling the London-Edinburgh-London event. This is the biggest long distance cycling event in the UK, and is held every four years. To complete the challenge you have to ride 1540 km in 125 hours. This means cycling over 300 km a day for five days in row, snatching a couple of hours of sleep each day when you can. I have been training for it over summer, building up my distance from 200 to 300 to 400 to 600km, all within a time limit. I guess this ride is the definition of "type 2" fun - meaning you feel pain when you're doing it, but feel great when it's done. When it gets hard, I will tell myself that I am lucky to be able to try to do it.

I hope you can use my ride as a reason to donate to Dyscover which is helping Robert and many other people with the aphasia.

Here is some info if you want to track me:
- my rider number is K29
- you can see where I am at http://londonedinburghlondon.com/ridertracking
- you can see the route here https://londonedinburghlondon.com/route