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We are Epilepsy Society's Genomics Research Team and we are dusting off our trainers to take on one of the country's most popular cycle ride-the London to Brighton bicycle ride. But we want a bigger challenge! So we plan to depart from the Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, cycle through London city centre, and add an extra 25 miles to the 60 miles of the original bike-path!

We are dedicating many hours, days and weeks to train and fundraise for the 85 mile long and 2635 feet elevation ride that will take place on Saturday 11 September. As part of this challenge, we are hoping to raise £10,000 to purchase a vital piece of research equipment for our lab at the Epilepsy Society's Research Centre, Buckinghamshire.

We will cycle in a relay, with a team of 12 scientists from UCL and the Epilepsy Society riding together. Some of us will aim to complete the entire trek, and some will join the group along the route to Brighton. 

The equipment will be used for our Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) project. TMS is a non-invasive and safe way of looking at
how the brain actually works. We are using TMS to help us understand what happens in the brain in people with epilepsy, and how the functioning of the brain can be affected by the genetic changes that cause epilepsy. We are currently working with a complex and new technique called TMS/hdEEG. The TMS stimulates a small area of the brain, and the high definition EEG enables us to record the response in the brain.

About 600,000 people in the UK have epilepsy and live with the daily risk of experiencing a seizure that may cause injury, interfere with daily activities, and rarely even sudden death. At present, up to 30% of people with epilepsy are not helped by the currently available treatments. The wider aim of this work is to develop techniques that will enable earlier diagnosis and personalised treatment choices, so that more people can benefit from treatment.

Please copy and paste this link in your browser to watch our video explaining how TMS/hdEEG works at our TMS/hdEEG lab at the Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8wmbbyGk2g

We are cycling to raise funds for a new size of hdEEG cap, which will enable us to offer TMS to more people with epilepsy.

We would be incredibly grateful for any donation you can give towards our fundraising efforts, no matter how small. With your support we can continue to make strides to improve the quality of life for people with epilepsy. A huge thank you from all of us at the Epilepsy Society.

Prof Simona Balestrini, Jane de Tisi, Dr Diego Jimenez, Josie Poole MSc, Dr Ravishankara Ravishankara, Joao Rodrigues Pizarro, Prof Sanjay Sisodiya, Dr Katri Silvennoinen, Dr Francesco Turco, Dr Vakrinou Angeliki, Prof Matthew Walker, Dr Umesh Vivekanada, and Dr Fenglai Xiao.