<p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Oh no, she's at it again....</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></strong></p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What am I up to this time?</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Each year&nbsp;the&nbsp;Sage Cycle Club lads&nbsp;organise a cycling event to help raise money for Sage's annual&nbsp;charity, Cancer Research UK and this year is&nbsp;no&nbsp;different&nbsp;except&nbsp;they've gone bigger and better than ever before. Instead of just organising one event, they've organisd a&nbsp;few different&nbsp;ones in the hope that we'll raise even more than the whopping &pound;12,500&nbsp;collected last year!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">While I'm not taking part in them all, I have signed up to do the two biggest events....</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">&sect;<span style="font: 7pt &amp;amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;amp;quot;;">&nbsp; </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Coast to Coast in May (140 hilly miles over two days) - apparently this'll make a nice 'training ride' for the big one&nbsp;(Jeez, if this is a training ride....)</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">&sect;<span style="font: 7pt &amp;amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;amp;quot;;">&nbsp; </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Newcastle to&nbsp;Paris in June&nbsp;(600 miles in less than a week including 135 miles in a single&nbsp;day) - we&nbsp;had to do something bigger than last&nbsp;year so we're off to gay Paris. (John Bishop eat your heart out)</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So why am I doing it?</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hmm, I've been&nbsp;asking myself this very question...&nbsp;but seriously, there's a few&nbsp;reasons why I'm taking part...</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1. Almost everyone has been touched by Cancer in some way, shape or form&nbsp;and I'm no exception. I&nbsp;lost a&nbsp;friend to the disease in 2006, I had a scare myself in 2007 and I have friends who are&nbsp;living with and bravely battling&nbsp;Cancer right now. I'd really like to dedicate this years&nbsp;cycling&nbsp;challenges&nbsp;to these people and anyone else out there&nbsp;fighting the disease.&nbsp;I hope I do them proud.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2. Every&nbsp;two minutes in the UK,&nbsp;someone is told they have Cancer. I can only imagine how&nbsp;absolutely devastating it must be to hear these words. I see this years challenge&nbsp;as me, doing my bit&nbsp;to&nbsp;raise as much money as possible for&nbsp;Cancer Research UK! The work they do&nbsp;is phenomonal and hopefully one day,&nbsp;it'll mean that dying from Cancer is a thing of the past.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3. The last reason is more of a personal one and is all about me believing in me! For anyone that knows me well&nbsp;(and&nbsp;those of you&nbsp;that were in my&nbsp;PLP group), you'll know that I often&nbsp;struggle to believe in my own abilities. Well this is me, setting myself the goal of working really hard&nbsp;to believe&nbsp;I can do this....&nbsp; While I can't say I 'love' cycling (even after three years of doing it), I am starting to enjoy it a little bit so I figure if I can complete these two challenges, cycle this far and still have a smile on my face at the end (I'm determined to end with a smile),&nbsp;it might just convince me that I can achieve&nbsp;anything I set my mind to.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">How can you help?</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Well, talk about stating the obvious but... if you'd like to donate to this fantastic cause&nbsp;and support me completing both rides (ooo, it's gonna hurt), I'd be over the moon. Every single penny I raise will be what keeps me going when my legs feel like they're&nbsp;about to drop off and my bum is so sore I can hardly sit down.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thanks so much for reading and for all your support!</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;amp;quot;Calibri&amp;amp;quot;,&amp;amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;amp;quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Leigh</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>