I saw this on Eurosport and thought, what a great cycling trip that would be! 

Then I realised that the charity had personal relevance. My wife Fiona was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma 4 years ago and has been through radiotherapy, chemotherapy and stem cell transplant. Thankfully she has made a brilliant recovery, due in no small way to the treatment she received at the Cancer Centre in Belfast City Hospital. 

I sent an expression of interest to see what would happen...

Still, was it a tenuous link and would it be enough to commit to what is a serious challenge to raise the funding required? A chat with Mary Frances McMullin, Professor of Clinical Haematology at BCH and lead at the Belfast TAP Centre convinced me that the research into all types of blood cancer including myeloma and the recent diversion of funding as a result of Covid 19 gave real focus to the thought of doing this.

I got a response back from Joe that they had received my application and would be really interested in talking more ...

OK - better mention this to Fiona before it goes any further. So the fact that i had to raise £40k, spend endless hours training over the the next 9 months and be away from home for more than 3 weeks in the summer of 2022 were the hurdles to be discussed. 

To my surprise she was all on for it and really keen to raise awareness around Multiple Myeloma...

So..

On the 24th June 2022, I am joining former England and Crystal Palace footballer and leukaemia survivor, Geoff Thomas, to cycle the full Tour de France route one week ahead of the professionals.The Tour 21 will take place from Friday 24 June - Sunday 17 July and myself, alongside a team of 19 riders, will take on all 21 grueling stages and 3,500km - one of the world's most grueling sporting challenges. We are committed to raising £1,000,000 for the charity that helped save Geoff's life. All funds raised from this event will be invested directly into the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) network which Cure Leukaemia has been funding since January 2020 allowing them to open and run clinical trials for pioneering treatments for the disease. Patients from an increased catchment area of over 20 million people will have access, as a result, to potentially life-saving treatments.