Along with my 70 year old father and best friend, we’re taking part in this years London to Brighton off-ride MTB ride to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in memory of a good friend and (should’ve been) brother in law..

Mr William Faulkner, aka Billy, was my sister’s partner and a great “mate” of mine. As some of you may be aware, but for the others that don’t; Billy and my sister were due to final marry in November 2021 following COVID19 saying “oh, No No No….” to them in November 2020 with putting the whole country back into a National lockdown.

Unfortunately, just 6 weeks out from the (rearranged) date of the their wedding my dear sister (Lisa) came home from work to find her loving fiancé Billy dead in bed.  From a personal point, I will never forget the phone call from my dad telling me to get around to my sisters now as Billy has dead! For a matter of fact, I was actually heading out for a bike ride that night and was thinking every time time my dad kept ringing me “what does he bloody want!!??….”. 

It was only the fact my dad then rung my wife who answered straight away and then shouted at to me as I was just about to start pedalling off….

Billy was one of the nicest and kindest people you could ever have meet and it was proven by anyone that met him, always up for a ‘quiet drink’ on a Saturday afternoon which would turned into a session, always had chocolate on offer for my kids, up for a joke and was generally the kindest person in the room. He was just shy of his 52nd birthday when he died.  

God I miss him at time, I even say Goodnight buddy every time I turn a light off wherever I am.

The L2B off-road MTB ride is approximately 62 miles of farmer’s field, gravel lanes, country roads, footpaths and woodlands. - Starting from Sunbury-on-Thames in London, finishing on the sea front in Brighton. 

This is no easy ‘Sunday ride’, but a grilling and extreme challenge on our MTB bikes, especially for my dad of 70 years old riding 62 miles!!!

Lets be honest, reality is some of us will know (…or know’of) someone who is currently struggling.. this really is for a great cause. 

Anything you can donate will be much appreciated, from £1 to £1000… (there will be one friend that will donate the £1000)…

Thanks you for reading my story and I hope you enjoyed it and donate.

Much love people, much love. Xx

Michael Hudson