The challenge - Club des Cinglés Du Mont-Ventoux

UPDATE 30th May - Challenge completed!

My story……

Climb the iconic French mountain « Ventoux » 3 times in one calendar day. It’ll mean over 4400 m of climbing up hill on a bike, around 90 miles of riding and roughly 10 hours in the saddle. It’s also the home of a monument to the Olympic medallist, world champion and the first Briton to wear the fabled yellow jersey of the Tour de France, Cyclist Tom Simpson who died racing up it in the 60´s. He is oft quoted as having said « put me back on the bike ». Getting back on my bike has been a very important part of my life in the last couple of years.

The reason? I’ve spent the last 18 months recovering from a devastating life changing illness. Prior to this is was a very fit, healthy and happy 40 something. I was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer which had been making me unwell from time to time, for a number of years but with no real explanation or huge medical concern . After diagnosis, I underwent a gruesome, painful, life changing surgery to remove it and a gruelling recovery that kept me out of work for the best part of year and wreaked havoc on my physical condition and mental health. At one point, around 6 months into recovery, I ended up back in hospital and almost died as a result of complications. I’m lucky to be alive thanks to the amazing medical care I received throughout that period.

Why this mountain? During recovery a friend gave me a cycling magazine and a poster of the summit fell out. Feeling sorry for myself, I picked it up and resolved there and then to climb that mountain, all the way from the hospital bed to the top a dirty great big French mountain. Everyday I spent recovering I saw that picture and told myself I was going to climb it. Climbing a mountain is a perfect metaphor for the last 18 months of my life. Climbing a mountain three times probably indicated the scale of my journey.

I have many people to whom I am massively grateful and to whom I wish to honour in undertaking this challenge. Thus I’d like to offer a chance for any supporters to make a donation to one of 3 charities.

Even if I don’t make it up three times, and come back to the UK, chastened having done it just the once, do please donate to these wonderful charities in light of my efforts to raise awareness of what they do. Note there are 3 separate fundraisers - click on each of them to choose which charity you’d like to donate to….they all look identical until you click on them.