Thank you for following my link. I'm sure you get a lot of requests so I am even more grateful.

Until December last year, I’d never cycled more than a few miles and so 980 miles over 9 days, climbing 52000ft and sleeping in a tent felt like a breeze for a 54 year old who eats too many chocolate biscuits!

There are fifteen of us training hard to try and raise as much as we can in September. Seven of us, including myself and my Best Man Toby were at Loughborough together, graduating in 1986.

Toby has a son Monty, who fought and beat meningitis but continually faces challenges as a result. Please take time to have a look at Toby's page and his story.  Other families are not so lucky. Jon, another of our team,  lost his daughter Lucie to meningitis in 2010 at 16 days old.

So far I've managed 3036 miles in training over 107 sessions, lost numerous kilos and have jolly sore knees! We will continue to train until September with various events lined up to try and give us the best chance of completing the challenge.

I and we appreciate any contribution you can make and any donation you make will support the amazing work the Meningitis Research Foundation continue to do.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.