Kevin and I have been friends for more years than either of us cares to remember, having first met when we joined Strathclyde Police on the same day in 1979. One of the activities which have cemented our friendship has been cycling, and we have spent countless happy days biking. Some months ago when Kevin was anticipating retiral we began to look forward to more frequent opportunities to get on our bikes. Our thoughts began to turn to the idea of a decent cycling challenge and the most obvious British candidate was the trip from Land's End to John O'Groats. The initial idea will become reality on 31 May 2011 when we commence our adventure.
We are both conscious of the fact that we have been able to pursue our interest in cycling only because we have always enjoyed good health. In deciding on a charity to support through our own personal challenge we immediately thought of the St. Margaret of Scotland Hospice in Clydebank. It is local to both of us and the good work which is carried out there is legendary. We therefore invite friends and colleagues to sponsor us by donating what they can to help the work of the dedicated, compassionate people who work there in the interests of those who have not been as fortunate in health matters as Kevin and I.
We will attempt to keep our sponsors up to date as far as possible with our progress. We are pretty sure that at least one interesting event will occur in the course of a 1,000 mile trip. Rest assured ...you will be the first to know when it does!
Finally, a brief tribute. There was to have been a third rider on this trip. Our good friend, Neil McCover, with whom Kevin and I spent many happy days cycling, was to have accompanied us. To our immense sadness, Neil died tragically in October 2010. We miss his sense of humour and his enthusiasm, not to mention the rather impressive "Mr Grumpy" act which he took pleasure in producing when the rest of us would delay the start of a cycle ride by asking him to check out bits and pieces on our bikes. We will remember Neil with great fondness during our journey. We know he would have enjoyed it. We would have enjoyed having him with us.
