The Plan

We are cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats (LEJOG) between Thursday 17th August and Sunday 27th August in aid of charity. James is a keen cyclist and has undertaken some rides before, albeit nothing on this scale. In contrast, Harry has less cycling experience and only sat on a road bike for the first time back in January!

Unable to use motorways, our route is more circuitous and much longer than the average car journey. We anticipate cycling 1,000 miles, averaging 100 miles a day, for 10 consecutive days. Although those numbers roll off the tongue well, the reason for doing it in the much shorter time span of 10 days (rather than the usual 14) is to challenge ourselves as much as possible. The additional daily mileage means that it will become exponentially harder physically throughout the day, and each one of these extra miles will be gruelling.

For those stat lovers amongst you, here are a few more facts and figures to put the scale of the challenge ahead into perspective. Over the course of the 10 days, we will:

• Climb 15,000 meters in height - the equivalent of summiting Mt. Everest one and a half times.

• We’ll be on our bikes for about 10 hours a day, burning about 5,000 calories. Typically, a marathon runner will burn around 2600 over their distance. This is more comparable to running an ultra-marathon every day, 10 days in a row.

Therefore, we fully expect to be tested to our limits: physical, psychological, and our pal’s partnership.

Why are we doing it?

After sixteen years of friendship, it may seem mad to stress-test the strength of this bond. However, our motivation is deeply personal; we would like to help a charity whose benefits we have witnessed first-hand.

As you may know, Harry has been with Zoe Churchill for nearly four years and was lucky enough to get to know her mother, Catherine, well. Sadly, Catherine died from non-smoker’s lung cancer in June last year, aged 52. Cancer is always a dreadful disease, but there is something that is particularly unjust about non-smokers lung cancer. This type is far less recognised, both publicly and in medical research, despite being a particularly aggressive form that targets younger people and consequently is frequently mis-diagnosed.

Due to her relatively young age and her non-smoking history, Catherine was misdiagnosed twice: first being told she had long-COVID and then, asthma. By the time the cause of her illness was identified, it was already at an advanced stage. Had there been greater awareness of non-smokers lung cancer, Catherine might have been diagnosed earlier and had a better chance to beat it.

The Ruth Strauss Foundation is a charity established by the former England cricket captain, Andrew Strauss, in memory of his wife, Ruth, who also sadly died from non-smokers lung cancer. This charity does incredible work to raise awareness of this disease, support families such as Zoe’s who have been affected by it, and fund crucial medical research into this specific cancer.

We are therefore pedalling in memory of Catherine and, in doing so, hope to help other families avoid the heartbreak the Churchill and Strauss families have experienced.

We would both be extremely grateful if you were able to make any donation, no matter how big or small. Anything at all would mean the world to us, as well as Catherine’s family, and go a long way to really helping people who truly need it, either with this form of cancer or affected by it.

Many thanks in advance for any support that you can offer.

For the social media fans amongst you and those that may be keen for training updates, please follow our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/lejog_jamesandharry/ - Please do give us a follow if you would like regular updates on our training progress and the day-to-day story.

Love and best wishes,

Harry, James & The Ruth Strauss Foundation