Hi everyone

We wanted to introduce ourselves and tell you all about our charity fundraising plans for this year. We are Cathy and Oonah, two friends and colleagues who have gone slightly mad and have decided to do something momentous for charity this August. This is a quick introduction to our - Coast to Coast 2020 plans and the story of how we’ve arrived at this point:

Our Background:

After a successful 60-mile Causeway Coast Cycle (including Torr Head!) on the 22 June last year, Cathy sent a few messages suggesting we could ramp things up a bit and basically cycle around Ireland. One text message later, it was agreed and Coast to Coast 2020 was born! This will involve us cycling the length and breadth of Ireland – both northern and southern bits. As both of us have been cycling together for a few years now and haven’t fallen out yet, we couldn’t think of a better pairing.  We quickly got our support team of Sarah Jane, Marguerite and Gerald on board and things have gone from there.

When thinking about a charity to raise money for, we were undecided but the same theme of cancer kept raising its ugly head.  Between all five of us we have been touched by a mum, dads, a father-in-law, aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents, close friends and colleagues who have battled prostate, cervix, brain, breast, skin, bowel, liver, bone, blood, bladder and other cancers. We have seen the heart-breaking side of cancer - our loved ones going through tough treatments that ultimately failed and watched them in their final hours as they’ve lost their battle. Yet we’ve seen the other side of it, where treatment has been successful and seen those dearest to us become one of the many brave survivors and cancer free.

In choosing our charity we have picked one that looks at cancers affecting all ages and genders – Cancer Research. The only way we view to fight cancer is to stop it in the first place.  Cancer Research focuses on scientific progress to fight cancer and its ambition is to see three-quarters of people surviving cancer within the next 20 years. Their

ultimate goal is to see a day when all cancers can be cured.

Our Plans:

1. We will be doing our first Coast to Coast 2020 cycle between Belfast and Ballyshannon on Saturday 15^th August. We are cycling it in one day covering approximately 120 miles. 

2. The following Sunday we will be driving down to Cork and starting on Monday 24^th at Mizen Head and finishing on Friday 28^th August at Malin Head, Co Donegal. This will be a distance of around 370 miles covered in 5 days. 

Our support team will be keeping us safe, puncture free and well fed. We have a number of kind sponsors coming on board (updates to follow) – however so far we have been given a van for this event from KD Kars, Gilford - perfect for logistics and the odd tow as per Tour de France rules! We’ve also been sponsored by FitnessBelfast, MD Book Keeping Solutions and are being provided with muscle rubs
and organic balms from Mrs R’Ganics….that should help the tired legs!

In addition to the cycle, we will be holding different fund-raising events in the run up to August. We have our Instagram account (@coast_to_coast_2020) up and running so that you can follow our progress and keep up to date with the fundraising events and you can also follow us on our Facebook page at Coast to Coast 2020 NI.

Training HAS started (although the testing of the food for cycling seems to be going better....) and is currently consisting of weekend cycles. We are also complimenting this with some resistance training and yoga. The cycling will be built up over the next few months and we will start commuting to work when the daylight hours get a bit longer.

This is going to be the hardest but most rewarding thing we've ever attempted and we couldn't do it without the support of everyone! We would love it if you could donate what you can and follow us along this
crazy beautiful cycle journey, knowing that your donations will go to help those in need. 

Thank you all so much!

Cathy and Oonah 

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