I'm an amateur cyclist who's never competed in a single formal race or done a ride longer than 100 miles (or ridden more than ~250 miles in a week), but in June 2022, I am joining former England and Crystal Palace footballer and leukaemia survivor, Geoff Thomas, and 23 other teammates to cycle the full Tour de France route one week ahead of the professionals and raise a combined £1M for Cure Leukaemia. It's a huge goal, and with your help I know I can complete it.

The Tour de France is one of the biggest challenges in sports, and the fundraising for Cure Leukaemia is one of the most important personal commitments I've ever made: funding clinical trials and the basic science of medicinal research pays incredible dividends, both to the patients directly affected and to the world at large. Katelyn, my girlfriend of five years, lost her mother to melanoma after she was removed from a clinical trial that was saving her life; Geoff Thomas, the reason we're taking on this challenge, beat leukaemia thanks to an experimental treatment way back in 2003; and the only reason Cure Leukaemia was able to run the 2021 Tour 21 challenge and we'll be able to repeat it in 2022 is thanks to the medical research and clinical trials that rolled out vaccines for COVID-19 so quickly.

The Tour 21 will take place from Friday 24 June - Sunday 17 July and I, as part of the team of 25 riders, will take on all 21 grueling stages and 2,100 miles of the most-watched sporting event in the world. As a team of 25 amateur cyclists, we are committed to raising £1,000,000 for the charity that helped save Geoff's life. All funds raised from this event will be invested directly into the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) network which Cure Leukaemia will begin funding from January 2020 allowing them to open and run clinical trials for pioneering treatments for the disease. Patients from an increased catchment area of over 20 million people will have access, as a result, to potentially life-saving treatments.

Find and follow me on Instagram at @grahamd_ for pictures of Tucson and my training!