Just 2 months ago I had never touched a road bike in my life, and only 2 months from now I plan on cycling 1850km from London to Rome over the course of 18 days, all to raise money for Cancer research. But Why?

For context, few a years back my Mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Consequently she had to undergo many rounds of Chemotherapy alongside other unpleasant procedures as treatment. After enduring the suffering and hardship that chemo has brought for so many people, she managed to come through the other side in one piece, only then to be re-diagnosed with cancer about 2 years after in 2020. This of course meant she had to go through a whole new bout of damaging operations and radio-therapy to get the all clear again, before fortunately returning to life as 'normal', albeit with some scars.

As sad as stories like this may sound, the reality is they're becoming less unusual in today's society, where many aren't fortunate enough to come through the other side of experiences similar to my Mums. I'm sure many of you reading can speak of similar stories from people you know or love that have battled with cancer, as it’s pretty well documented that 1 out of 2 people during our lifetimes will likely be diagnosed with some form of cancer.

The fact that so many of us are going to have cancer, whether it be yourself, friends or loved ones means that (in my opinion) it's in all of our best interests to help fund the research into cancer to find how we can prevent, treat, and cure different cancers going forward better than we currently do. Looking back, although fit and healthy again now, the processes and treatment were all pretty brutal for Mum and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone, especially knowing that in many other cases procedures are not even successful as we all know well enough. This will continue to be the case for our generation going forward unless we can help fund the research to help accelerate the movement to a world with less pain from cancer going forward.

Hopefully the challenge I have set myself is enough to inspire you to donate or share this post so that we can all live better, longer lives.

Any donations, little or large are hugely appreciated

Tom