Having not even owned a bike since I was a child, I am planning to ride from Coast to Coast - from Whitehaven on the west coast of England to Sunderland on the east.

 

I'm raising money for Anthony Nolan, who run the UK’s largest and most successful stem cell register. They use it to save lives by matching donors to people who desperately need a lifesaving stem cell or bone marrow transplant.

 

Back in 2005 my nephew Josh was lucky enough to have one of these transplants. At just 8 weeks old he was diagnosed with a life threatening and extremely rare disease called HLH. Basically Josh's immune system was faulty and any illness triggered it to attack the healthy cells in his body. The only cure was to replace all his white blood cells by performing a bone marrow transplant. Through Anthony Nolan a search was made for a donor with matching tissue type. There were none on the UK register, but a worldwide search found a perfect match in Germany. Josh had his transplant at 5 months old. He overcame many hurdles in his first year of life and is now a very energetic and gorgeous 6 year old boy.

 

See the video for the full story of Josh's illness and recovery.

 

Any money raised will be donated to Anthony Nolan will help save the lives of other people in need of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant.

 

But you don't need to donate money to Antony Nolan. An even bigger donation is join the register and potentially save a life by becoming a stem cell donor yourself.

 

A group of 7 of us have arranged to a 150 mile off-road mountain bike trek right across the country - each of us in aid of our own charity or just for the challenge. For me it is a chance to give something back to Antony Nolan.

 

We start the ride in Whitehaven on Friday 30th September finishing in Sunderland on Sunday 2nd October.

 

Thank you very much for any donations.