Why I have decided to ride all stages of the Tour De Femmes one day before the professionals

‘Holy Angels visited and took away our Jack…and left us with our tears’, - these are the poetic and grief stricken words written by my friend Nick one morning in April 2016. I read the message on my daily commute to Oxford and I could not help but cry, trying to ignore the strange looks from other passengers. His son Jack had passed away shortly before his 16th birthday despite having a bone marrow transplant in an attempt to save him from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). This was the first time I had heard of this type of blood cancer and sadly it was not going to be the last.

Another message years later, June 2022, this time from a friend, Susie who I had rowed with at Wallingford Rowing Club - I mention this as any rower will know how close the bond is with a fellow crew mate. Susie had just found out that her 8 year old son, Ali had been diagnosed with AML. For such a rare form of blood cancer (each year 100 children and young people below 19 are diagnosed), I could not believe this was happening to another close friend. She had noticed some bruises appearing on her son’s body; initially she just thought they were bruises from football and playing but after they kept appearing she took him to the GP, who immediately sent them to hospital for blood tests. He was diagnosed within hours and admitted for urgent treatment.

Ali spent his 9th birthday in hospital and the months afterwards facing brutal rounds of chemotherapy and being isolated from his school friends. Around this time a friend from my social cycling club told me he had just cycled London to Paris for Cure Leukaemia (CL). I had never heard of this event before and a seed was planted that perhaps I could get a group of friends together to ride London to Paris in 2023 and raise money for the charity in solidarity of Ali and Susie and his family.

The seed blossomed into reality and I formed Team Portcullis - a group of 8 female rowing mates with varying levels of cycling ability/fitness, all keen to fundraise and ride for Ali. I was so pleased that Nick also joined us to cycle in memory of his son, Jack. By the time June 2023 came around we had already raised £20k.

The 4-day cycle to Paris was memorable in so many ways. We cycled the 500km with 150 riders, all supported by a phenomenal team who had given up their own time to make sure we all made it safely to Paris. We shared moments of hysterical laughter, tears of exhaustion, heard stories of grief and survivorship and became part of what the charity calls, the CL Family. It may sound like a cliché, but I genuinely felt part of something very special and our total fundraising exceeded £23,000. It was an amazing achievement; but we returned home to reality as Ali was still not cured.

This summer I was invited to ride London to Paris for a second time as a last minute entry for Westridge Foods - it was a totally different experience not being with my close friends from the year before, but it was great to rebond again with the CL family. I met some amazing women who were cycling a new event launched by CL called The Route, which involves cycling each stage of the Tour de France Femmes one day ahead of the professionals. I followed the progress of their small team of 6 and realised it was something I really wanted to do for CL, for Ali and for all other children battling blood cancer. And so, a couple of weeks ago I signed up to a join the team.

Fundraising £10k is a daunting task - any donations will be gratefully received.