Last year I lost my old mate and long time cycling companion Tom to Leukaemia

Apart from being really unfair to Tom and his family, this horrible disease robbed me of a brilliant cycling companion whose endless supply of stories and jokes kept me laughing over the long difficult stretches

For fun, and to show that I’m still not past it, I’ve decided to retrace a memorable coast to coast run that we did in 2005.

Applied IT have generously agreed to donate a pound to Macmillan Cancer Research for every mile that I cycle, but they have insisted that instead of starting from Whitehaven and ending in Newcastle I have to start and finish from Hitchin instead.

This of course makes it a very long way and I’ve only got 4 days so I’ve decided to cheat a bit and use the train in the middle.

If you want to donate too then I’d be really grateful