This year Christmas is not for same for most, our table was
somewhat empty this year. 

My wife Joe really loved Christmas, so much so she
celebrated with friends again later in the year too.

Our 2 growing boys and her mum Chris have all shed a tear or
two, I'm sure many others have too.

Sure, we had presents, laughter, tears, crap telly and
dinner but this first Christmas without Joe, who in May this year passed away after a long hard-fought battle* with cancer.

Throughout the 5-year journey we have been supported by all
at the Arden Centre at UCWH, the team on Ward 35, Macmillan, Myton and many others.  In ways you don't even think of before you start off. 

Our family will be forever in debt to you for the years we
had because of what you all do, thanks is just not enough!

This year I started with a goal of cycling 20km every day on my exercise bike, mainly because I wanted to keep body and more importantly mind in shape.

An injury in February meant I lost 2 days, I also missed 2
days in July and August for some holiday time in Newquay.

The only other day I missed in this year was after the boys,
Chris and I visited Joe and said our goodbyes, so proud of our boys that night!

I was going to start this fundraiser and set a target 1,000km for Joe's birthday in September but that was a tough month, children back at school and an empty house for the first time, I didn't feel that sociable but  I'd upped my distance and was 5,000km in for the year.

Looked on a map and saw Cape Town as 9,879km from Rugby
4,800km in 4 months requiring 40km every day for the rest of the year.

I might make it I might not, but at the end of the day I'm
not turning round and heading back.

I appreciate the target is high and the only reason for that
is that Joe's friends and family that donated to this cause in memory of Joe earlier in the year raised an amazing £2,499.08 the target is 1p more, which is pretty much the mentality it takes to do the cycling every day, especially when after 6 months I was less than a third of the eventual target.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally
secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

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Joe's Battle,

*Late December in 2015 my beautiful wife Joe was diagnosed
with HER2-positive Breast Cancer, a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer.  Just 2 weeks later we were called back, the whole-body
scans showed that this cancer was very much all over her bones with too many to
count from the skull to her feet.  This
was devastating news meaning that remission from Cancer was not going to happen.

Joe went through Chemotherapy then a mastectomy for the last
4 years attended the Arden centre for ongoing treatment every 3 weeks, beating
off infections in her arm and another in her lung that again amazed the team
looking after her. 

By July 2019 we discovered that the cancer had now moved to
the brain, more treatment whole brain radiotherapy, side effects became worse
than ever.  She continued to fight but
the pain she was now in on a daily basis was too much to watch, let alone
suffer.

In May 2020 my gorgeous wife finally became free of pain,
reunited with dad and sister.  Throughout
this Joe was been the best mum, wife, daughter and friend to many.