Cancer is something I have direct experience of with my daughter Beth having been diagnosed with lymphoma aged 7.  Thankfully she has made a full recovery but over the past couple of years I have lost some very good friends to cancer so, as an act of remembrance, and as fund-raising exercise for charity, I am undertaking a 100 mile bike ride which I plan to do solo.

I’m 54 years old, overweight and 2 Years ago I would have struggled to ride 5 miles. I’ve been working on getting fitter since having been “locked-in” during the first 3 months of the pandemic due to not having a spleen.  If training goes to plan, I will be doing the ride late May or early June.  I expect to burn around 6,500 calories over a 7-hour period in the saddle aiming for a 14-15 mph average to hit my target time for 100 miles.  I will record the mileage and publish the times on completion (big assumption there).

I had hoped to select multiple charities to represent each person’s choice but sadly this is just not possible, so I hope to raise as much as I can for the John van Geest Cancer Research Centre in memory of the following people:

Mandy Fisher.  Andy & Ariane, Mandy’s husband and daughter, are very close friends, but Mandy is hugely missed by everyone who knew her.  She was a larger-than-life character, cheeky & outgoing, with a real lust for life and a wicked sense of humour.  I lost count of how many evenings we spent glugging the red-stuff at either our house or theirs!  Or for that matter glugging the red-stuff on a cruise round the med!

Graham Wall:  Graham was a true gentleman, a great friend and neighbour, and always willing to help anyone in need.  Both Graham and his wife Val were very well travelled and spent many months away in various far-flung corners of the world, choosing only to book hotels at the beginning and end of the journey and stopping “with the locals” in-between – and when you are travelling from the South tip of Vietnam, through Cambodia, Thailand and Laos is no mean-feat!

Greg Hill: Greg was a local businessman, an avid sportsman and a keen cyclist who was not shy of some serious rides himself including triathlons and a fund-raising ride from Lands’ End to John O’Groats. A quiet and considered man who, when you got to know him, was generous with a good sense of humour and most importantly a loving husband to Jo and a superb father to his daughters Rhianna and Phoebe.

Neil Kelso: Neil was the Landlord and owner of the Victoria Hotel in Beeston, Nottingham which he ran for over 25 years alongside his wife Linda and daughter Hannah. A genuinely lovely chap and a fantastic chef who very generously gave up his own time to show me how to cook a paella in the Vic’s kitchen when I mentioned I was “doing his recipe” for some friends!! I never saw Neil without a smile on his face and you were never stuck for words when he was around. Linda & Hannah are still doing a fantastic job along with the rest of the fabulous team, so, if you’re ever in the area, do pay a visit! www.vichotelbeeston.co.uk

So in the words of Bob Geldof at Live Aid, “Give us your ****** money!” 😊

Thanks to Andy & Ariane Fisher, Val Wall, Jo Hill and Linda Kelso for their permission to use their loved-one’s names.

I’ve never done anything like this before and probably never will again!!!!

Thank You.