I am cycling from Blackpool to Surrey in 24 hours and then taking on the mighty Ride London,  plus I'll be shaving my head for Macmillan Cancer Support because I want to help people affected by cancer. 

Back in 2000 my dad heard the words ‘I’m sorry to tell you that you have cancer’. I know he heard the words because I was there with my sister but I’m not sure he really understood what was being said. Dad had already suffered a major stroke a few years before, which meant he couldn't communicate very well making the whole experience a lot more stressful and traumatising. Over the next year or so, my amazing sister Den and I did our best to look after our dad, regularly taking time off work to take him to his hospital appointments and generally pulling together to get through day by day. I remember sitting in the laundrette late one night with Den eating a MacDonald’s, trying to get ourselves prepared for the next day – work, hospital, eat, sleep, repeat!  

On the 12^th September 2001 my dad died of cancer. It was a surreal experience to be honest, as the day before my sister and I were with our dad in hospital when the planes struck the World Trade Centre. It was such a bizarre couple of days which have become a bit of a blur in my mind and ended with my dad passing away! 

Of course our experience was unique to us but I’m sure it had some similarities with many other people. At the time we didn’t have much support – no Macmillan Nurse on hand to answer our questions or concerns, no local information and support centre, no Macmillan Support Line to call upon –so I know from personal experience how tough it can be when faced with the horror of cancer and trying to understand what’s going on and what’s going to happen to your dad. This was all long before I worked at Macmillan and since I’ve been here I’m determined we do everything we can to make sure no one finds themselves in the position we were in.

And so here I am asking everyone I know to dig deep and support me to raise money to help our fantastic cause. I know our experience would have been so much better if we had Macmillan’s support back when dad died. I’m setting myself a target of £825 which would fund a Macmillan Community Nurse for a whole week, which would have made a huge difference to my family back then. So any support is much appreciated!

Now I know how generous everyone can be and so I wanted to make sure everyone who supports me feels that I’m doing everything I can to raise as much as possible. So on top of these cycling shenanigans I’m proposing an extra fundraising activity which I’m calling ‘Shave or Save!’ It’s very simple, when sponsoring me you also get to vote whether I should have a full head shave, or save my beloved quiff! So make sure you cast your vote 'Shave' or 'Save' when leaving your message.

Now to go through with the head shave I have one condition, and that is that my JustGiving page hits £825 by Wednesday 20^th July2016. If we achieve this and the votes are in favour of the shave, then I will have my head shaved at my team meeting on Thursday 21^st July and full photographic evidence will be provided and displayed on Facebook, Twitter,Instagram etc.

So plenty of good reasons to show your support and help raise as much as possible for people affected by cancer!

Many thanks,

Rob