Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

There is now less than one week to go before we set off on Life Cycle 3. That is not a lot of time!

I have managed to get out on a training run of 50 miles or so once a week, which is not really enough, especially when the first four days of LC3 are back to back 80-90 miles. That said, most of the team managed to clear the first weekend in June to ride ‘The Way of the Roses’ from Bridlington to Morecambe. At 170 miles and with some tough terrain, that was a bit more like the real thing. 

Life Cycle 3 will start and finish in Nottingham, taking in the five capitals of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. This is a different kind of challenge to last year, involving some demanding terrain, a total distance which will probably exceed 1,100 miles, and a couple of ferries across the Irish Sea. Together with Karen Marion and Steve, I have cycled the final leg from Nevill Holt to Nottingham, it is a scenic and quite demanding 55 mile ride. We already have 60 riders signed up to join us on that leg on September 1, as part of the Life Cycle 3 Community Day.

The support we are receiving is absolutely tremendous. We have already secured the level of support we had by the time we set off last year, so there is every chance we will make the £300,000 target set.

 

Our cause this year is Stroke Rehabilitation Research. Although stroke remains the number three cause of death in the UK, dramatic improvements in preventative action and intervention mean record numbers are surviving strokes. But that also means more and more are living with some kind of disability or deficit; in fact, stroke is the main cause of disability in the community setting.

 

Improving the wellbeing and quality of life of stroke survivors is a major challenge, one which requires careful and painstaking research. It is not glamorous laboratory based research involving expensive and sophisticated equipment. Rather it is patient based, often qualitative, but at Nottingham also involving randomised control trials. Rehabilitation research is a complex process, more complex than a drug trial because of its reliance on therapists. It therefore takes time to work out whether improvements are taking place and which interventions can be applied more widely. It is not well funded, yet in terms of quality of life, it is vital work.

 

So I will find this a highly motivating cause, one which will help me push through pain barriers on long days in adverse weather conditions. I hope you will support my efforts.

 

In doing so, you will be helping improve the lives of many who have survived a stroke, but are then having to re-learn functions, competencies and capabilities that most of us have the good fortune of being able to take for granted.

 

So please dig deep and donate now.