On 27th August 2016, much to the devastation of all her friends and family, my sister, Stacey Burchett, passed away after a 5 year battle with Ocular Melanoma (eye cancer).

When Stacey was diagnosed with this horrendous condition her life expectancy was for less than 12 months, and the fact that she was able to live to see her daughters turn 15 and 5 is a credit to herself, the wonderful staff at St Bart's, the revolutionary trials that Stacey took part in and all the people who supported her.

In one such trial for Torcmek (AZD2014 and Selumetinib) Stacey was the first person in the UK to successfully complete the trial which enabled this treatment option to be offered to dozens of other patients.

Having donated to many great charitable challenges over the years I always knew I wanted to arrange and complete a significant challenge in Stacey's memory and try to raise an amount of money that can have a material impact both on research on treatments for this horrendous disease, but also can have a more direct impact on those people that helped Stacey so much.

Therefore, on 17th August myself and a number of other slightly crazy individuals are setting off from Stokes Bay beach, one of Stacey's favourite places in the Gosport area where Stacey spent her childhood, heading for Norfolk, the place she spent her most enjoyable adult years, ultimately ending up at Winterton-on-Sea on Sunday 20th August.

We are choosing to make this journey by road bike, and given Stacey's love of the sea, we are following the coastal route the whole way.

This means a journey of approximately 450 miles. Which as I have found out since I started training is significant! We will be training full-on for the last 3 months, and are stepping it up now with 2 months to go including numerous 100+ mile cycling days to make sure we are ready.

For those of you that know me know that I am definitely not an athlete, and certainly not a cyclist having not owned a bike since my early teens!! When I went out for the first time since deciding on this challenge I cycled just under 20 miles and it felt like 2000! So I have no idea how we will achieve 450, but I know that we will do whatever it takes.....

We will be hoping to include a 2 mile fun ride (at or near the finish) for any children who would like to participate in our ride and perhaps raise a few pounds of sponsorship themselves to add to Stacey's pot (more info to follow).

Also, if any keen cyclists want to join us for a day or the whole journey you would be most welcome.

We are hoping to raise £10,000 in Stacey's memory, all of which will be donated to cancer research and cancer related causes.

We would be so grateful if you could spare any amount to sponsor us, and if you could spread the word of our challenge via word of mouth and social media. We will also have special cycling jerseys made up, so if you or anyone you know would be interested in sponsoring us and having their company name or logo added to our jerseys, please do get in touch. If there is enough demand, we may also be able to have the jerseys produced in child sizes for purchase.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my wonderful sister and this challenge in her memory.

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