Each year more than a quarter of a million people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK, and 1 in 3 people will develop cancer during their lifetime. Almost 700 people are told that they have cancer every single day. This is a staggering statistic, and it is therefore an unfortunate reality that most of us will be affected by this disease one way or another in our lifetime. This is why I have chosen to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

So please sponsor me now even if its just £1. If you do not trust donating via the web, please email me with a pledge and I can add you to my sponsorship forms, and I will update my offline donations total which you can see at the bottom of the page.

So what’s it all about? – I’ve done London to Cape Town, overland (eleven months). Done the London Marathon (3 hours 25 mins). I’ve married a lovely lady (who still is lovely), and now have three gorgeous little ones. I’ve been extremely lucky and feel it’s about time to give something back, by doing something challenging. So on 16^th May 2009, I will be setting off (together with Andrew Tabor) to cycle the length of the mainland, from Lands End to John O Groats. The distance is about 1040 miles and we have planned to do it in 12 days (plus  two very small days on each end). This amounts to about 85 miles a day, a similar distance to that ridden by Mark Beaumont when he set his round the world record (although he did cycle for a few more days)

The trip is entirely unsupported and self financed. It is not one of those schemes where you raise a certain amount of money and you get lots of freebies, like accommodation, food, or transport support. We are doing it on our own and paying for it ourselves. If items do not fit into our two panniers, they stay at home.

The training has been very hard. I have a full time job and a family, so I have been getting up at 5.00 am every morning since February and cycling before work, in the garage on a trainer. I have done the same almost every evening. This has continued at weekends, together with rides on the road as soon as there has been enough daylight. Since January I have cycled over 3000 miles in preparation for this trip (and well over 3500 since October). In the latter stages of my training I have been cycling 101 miles on Saturdays followed by 85 on Sunday.

My bike weighs 33lbs and my gear 27lbs, thus I have to propel well over four stone for over 1000 miles. Now the good news, I can eat 22.5 Mars Bars every day without putting on any weight at all. On the trip, I can therefore eat about 279 of them. Not sure I can carry 22kgs worth though.

If anyone is interested I have a blog site which I hope to update as I go along, it's http://peteslejogadventure.blogspot.com/

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please support me if you can its a really good cause. Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Macmillan Cancer Support gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

All the best

Pete

Due to the kindness and generosity of people I exceeded my original target (with tax rebates) so have amended it, setting a new goal. Thanks to you all.