Clare Sykes
Susie & Clare's London to Paris Cycle Challenge
Fundraising for Breakthrough T1D
Story
On 6th June 2018 Susie and Clare will set off from Croydon on our bikes, hoping to arrive in Paris without too many saddle sores 4 days and 311 miles later.
The reason we have committed to do this cycle is to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is Susie's story:
"In April 2015 our lives changed forever. My 10 year old had been sleepy and thirsty and had lost some weight, but we had been skiing and with holidays and school trips we put it down to mundane things.
Please know if your child exhibits these symptoms get them to a GP and insist on a blood sugar test: Tired, Toileting, Thirsty, Thin, Fruity or sweet smelling breath.
Even if you have no family history, this disease is auto-immune so can crop up anywhere. We nearly lost Alex. The phone call that changed everything was a call from the school nurse whilst on a train asking if he had a head injury as he was acting oddly. We couldn’t collect him straight away and in the 30 minute train journey our world shifted. We met Alex in the hospital where he had already been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I cannot thank that nurse enough, she could very well have saved his life by checking his blood sugars.Type 1 diabetes is the one you CANNOT prevent, nor can you cure it. From that moment my son had to cope with the side effects of high and low blood sugar, needles, cannulas, prods, pokes and pricks! Never mind the fear that he might suffer a hypo (low blood sugar) in the night and never wake up. And we all embarked on a very steep learning curve.
Later that same year I smashed my ankle and needed significant reconstruction, that is why it has taken me so long to muster the courage to take on something like this to raise awareness and hopefully some money. Hopefully it also highlights that for me this is an immense challenge, I am starting from scratch-fat and forty with no base level fitness! With the support of my very good friend Clare (without whom I would never have been mad enough to think of doing this) and who is very generously working with me to support JDRF, we are looking to make it across the channel under our own steam.
We still have Alex and he is still him, I fully appreciate there are so many others who are not so fortunate when that phone call comes, and for that we are grateful. However I can never tell him it will get better, the harder we work to manage it the more invasive it is, every minute of every day and night we are at the mercy of blood sugars. Alex has to think every time he eats or drinks, exercises, experiences different environments the list goes on and on. This illness is relentless it never rests and neither can we. It is only when you go through something like this that you realise what an amazing job your body does and how much better it is at doing that than we. For this reason we need a cure!"
The JDRF have been a lifeline for Alex and his family during a difficult time as they had to come to terms with the sudden onset of a life changing condition and learn to manage it hour by hour and day
by day to try and get back to some sort of normality. JDRF's research into treating Type 1 diabetes is making it easier to manage than in the past but their goal is to find a cure so that children like Alex won't have to live the rest of their lives with Type 1 Diabetes. They fund research that will cure, treat and prevent Type 1 Diabetes and its complications. They focus on investing in research that will transform the lives of people with Type 1 Diabetes – improving treatments today until they find the cure.
By cycling to Paris, we hope to raise awareness of this condition whilst raising much needed funds to support the research of JDRF. You can follow our journey through 3 months of training and the cycle itself on this page. We will also be organising a range of fund raising events so please get involved if you can to help us reach our target of raising £5,000. If you would like to sponsor us directly please do so through
this page and remember to tick the Gift Aid box if you are a UK tax payer.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Susie & Clare xx
Here is some more information about Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes isn’t caused by poor diet or an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, it isn’t caused by anything that you did or didn’t do, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it.
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition.
For reasons we don’t yet fully understand, your immune system – which is meant to protect you from viruses and bacteria – attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas, called beta cells. Insulin is crucial to life. When you eat, insulin moves the energy from your food, called glucose, from your blood into the cells of your body. When the beta cells in your pancreas fail to produce insulin, glucose levels in your blood start to rise and your body can’t function properly. Over time this high level of glucose in the blood may damage nerves and blood vessels and the organs they supply.
This condition affects 400,000 people in the UK, with over 29,000 of them children. Incidence is increasing by about four per cent each year and particularly in children under five, with a five per cent increase each year in this age group over the last 20 years.
More than 50 genes have been identified that can increase a person’s risk of developing type 1 diabetes, but genes are only part of the cause. Scientists are also currently investigating what environmental factors play a role.
https://jdrf.org.uk
The reason we have committed to do this cycle is to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is Susie's story:
"In April 2015 our lives changed forever. My 10 year old had been sleepy and thirsty and had lost some weight, but we had been skiing and with holidays and school trips we put it down to mundane things.
Please know if your child exhibits these symptoms get them to a GP and insist on a blood sugar test: Tired, Toileting, Thirsty, Thin, Fruity or sweet smelling breath.
Even if you have no family history, this disease is auto-immune so can crop up anywhere. We nearly lost Alex. The phone call that changed everything was a call from the school nurse whilst on a train asking if he had a head injury as he was acting oddly. We couldn’t collect him straight away and in the 30 minute train journey our world shifted. We met Alex in the hospital where he had already been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I cannot thank that nurse enough, she could very well have saved his life by checking his blood sugars.Type 1 diabetes is the one you CANNOT prevent, nor can you cure it. From that moment my son had to cope with the side effects of high and low blood sugar, needles, cannulas, prods, pokes and pricks! Never mind the fear that he might suffer a hypo (low blood sugar) in the night and never wake up. And we all embarked on a very steep learning curve.
Later that same year I smashed my ankle and needed significant reconstruction, that is why it has taken me so long to muster the courage to take on something like this to raise awareness and hopefully some money. Hopefully it also highlights that for me this is an immense challenge, I am starting from scratch-fat and forty with no base level fitness! With the support of my very good friend Clare (without whom I would never have been mad enough to think of doing this) and who is very generously working with me to support JDRF, we are looking to make it across the channel under our own steam.
We still have Alex and he is still him, I fully appreciate there are so many others who are not so fortunate when that phone call comes, and for that we are grateful. However I can never tell him it will get better, the harder we work to manage it the more invasive it is, every minute of every day and night we are at the mercy of blood sugars. Alex has to think every time he eats or drinks, exercises, experiences different environments the list goes on and on. This illness is relentless it never rests and neither can we. It is only when you go through something like this that you realise what an amazing job your body does and how much better it is at doing that than we. For this reason we need a cure!"
The JDRF have been a lifeline for Alex and his family during a difficult time as they had to come to terms with the sudden onset of a life changing condition and learn to manage it hour by hour and day
by day to try and get back to some sort of normality. JDRF's research into treating Type 1 diabetes is making it easier to manage than in the past but their goal is to find a cure so that children like Alex won't have to live the rest of their lives with Type 1 Diabetes. They fund research that will cure, treat and prevent Type 1 Diabetes and its complications. They focus on investing in research that will transform the lives of people with Type 1 Diabetes – improving treatments today until they find the cure.
By cycling to Paris, we hope to raise awareness of this condition whilst raising much needed funds to support the research of JDRF. You can follow our journey through 3 months of training and the cycle itself on this page. We will also be organising a range of fund raising events so please get involved if you can to help us reach our target of raising £5,000. If you would like to sponsor us directly please do so through
this page and remember to tick the Gift Aid box if you are a UK tax payer.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Susie & Clare xx
Here is some more information about Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes isn’t caused by poor diet or an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, it isn’t caused by anything that you did or didn’t do, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it.
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition.
For reasons we don’t yet fully understand, your immune system – which is meant to protect you from viruses and bacteria – attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in your pancreas, called beta cells. Insulin is crucial to life. When you eat, insulin moves the energy from your food, called glucose, from your blood into the cells of your body. When the beta cells in your pancreas fail to produce insulin, glucose levels in your blood start to rise and your body can’t function properly. Over time this high level of glucose in the blood may damage nerves and blood vessels and the organs they supply.
This condition affects 400,000 people in the UK, with over 29,000 of them children. Incidence is increasing by about four per cent each year and particularly in children under five, with a five per cent increase each year in this age group over the last 20 years.
More than 50 genes have been identified that can increase a person’s risk of developing type 1 diabetes, but genes are only part of the cause. Scientists are also currently investigating what environmental factors play a role.
https://jdrf.org.uk