On September 5th a group will set off from Brussels cycling over the Alps and Pyrennes to Barcelona arriving on the 19th. I shall be joining them in Annecy for the latter half of the ride, including the hilly bits covering an average of 169km and climbing 2,419m per day, over 6 days. The biggest one, day 5 in the Pyrennes includes an accent of 3,974m.

This is the first mHealth Grand Tour (www.mhealthtour.com) during which the health data from participants will be studied, real time, by a team of academics, led by my good friend Prof Mike Trenell. There will be a group of people with diabetes and a "control" group without the disease participating in one of the largest and most innovative ever studies of its type.

Many of you will know I have been involved in Diabetes UK for some time and a few years ago set up a bursary fund to enable children to attend camps. These camps often provide the first opportunity for children, recently diagnosed, to meet others with the disease, supported on site by doctors and nurses, and to better understand the condition they will have to manage for the rest of their lives. Having seen the enormous benefit generated, through confidence and ability to care for themselves, I decided to help eliminate the financial barrier that some would face, preventing them from attending. Together with other people's fundraising, last year the bursay enabled an additional 23 children to attend.

Given that over 80% of children fail to achieve the NHS targets for controlling their diabetes and 75% of the cost of care goes on treating largely avoidable complications, often arising from inadequate control of their condition, one can hopefully appreciate the value.

Recognising that we all receive numerous requests, I shall be emensely grateful if you chose to support my efforts towards this bursary. As a vice president of Diabetes UK and the International Diabetes Federation, I guarantee that every penny raised (beyond the small fee Just Giving charge) will go directly into this bursary fund. Your gift not be paying for any of my or any other indirect costs.

Thank you for taking a moment to read this and, than you for helping others less fortunate.

Updates will be posted on 

http://bikingfordiabetes.wordpress.com

https://www.facebook.com/idf.europe 

as well as my own facebook page....