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On the 22nd September myself and a team from LGI Trauma Related Services (TRS) will be cycling the 100km UCI Road World Championship Sportive in aid of Leeds Cares.  Leeds Cares is a charity that aims to support the Leeds Teaching Hospitals in providing exceptional health care, support to patients, carers and staff and enable innovating and ground breaking research.

So why am I doing this ride?  A couple of reasons really, firstly I work very closely with Leeds Care and Day One specifically (a charity that fall under the Leeds Cares umbrella) and see what a difference they make to the lives of our patients and their families after experiencing the devastation of trauma.  Their services include counselling services to both patients and families, emergency funding/ accommodation, legal advice and support, and peer support.  They really are worth their weight in gold and as a major trauma specialist nurse, I see daily how this support improves patients outcomes and creates a more positive patient experience, in what can be a really dark time for both patients and families.

Secondly, I decided to take on this challenge for a more personal reason.  It'll be almost two years on, to the day, that I had surgery to my left hip.  Since this surgery I have really struggled to get back to the fitness I was at before and have had a lot of pain since.  Cycling is one of the only forms of exercise which doesn't seem to aggravate it too much and therefore, it was the perfect way to challenge myself.  So, if my patients who I care for can suffer multiple injuries affecting multiple limbs and systems, requiring multiple surgeries, I think I can drag my dodgy hip round the roads of Harrogate for 100km!!

So please... if you'd like to see wearing all the gear with absolutely no idea and then see me crying on a bike trying to get up Trapping Hill then please give as much as you can.  No one in life expects to be involved in a traumatic incident, but please help us try to make the best out of a bad situations for our patients and their families.

Peace out,

Sally xx

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