Hello there, and thanks for taking the time to visit this page. It tells the story of the time myself (Andy Newsham), Maria Mansfield and Bex White embarked, on 30^th July, upon the ‘Dorset Dash’, a 110 mile cycle ride from Oxford to Bournemouth. Aside from being, well, pretty bloody long, the Dorset Dash is a night ride, and therefore adds sleep deprivation to soreness of limb – not the most ideal combination!

So why on earth did we undertake this crazy ride? I personally wanted to raise as much money as possible for the Duchess of Kent House, a hospice in Reading that offers palliative treatment to people with cancer. And when they found out about my cause, Bex and Maria were also keen to support it. Last year, my mum spent her final weeks at the hospice, so I know from personal experience just how loving, dignified and far beyond the call of duty is the care they offer. Just thinking of the powerful, humbling, everyday acts of kindness I saw there still brings tears to my eyes. But sadly, they do not have the funding to run at full capacity all of the time, meaning that they have to leave some beds empty, and that not all are as lucky as my family. The house is funded partly by the NHS, but a big chunk of the funding comes from the Duchess of Kent House Charity, so what they bring in through their own efforts is crucial to the amount of people they can help. 

So what happened? Our ride did not have the happiest of starts. One member of our team, Abi Stone – the fittest of all of us and least likely to collapse in a field somewhere in the Chilterns – sadly had to pull out on the day, owing to a lingeringly nasty cold. And then we got lost trying to leave Oxford! But once we turned the map the right way up we actually started to make some decent progress. The ride was lovely, if slow, up to Marlborough, which we reached at 3am and had a welcome break for chips at the only place open at that time of night. Then we powered our way through the rain, and UP the misleadingly-named ‘Berkshire Downs’, until we arrived at Salisbury around 6am, about 80 miles into the route. By this point we had well and truly broken the back of the ride, and realised for the first time that we really could make it all the way to the end. We stopped in the market square for a well-deserved caffeine injection, trying to explain to bemused traders setting up their stalls why it was that we hadn’t gone to bed that night. Spurred on by the knowledge that we only had about 30 miles more to go, we headed off towards the New Forest, cycling through beautiful (if leg-wearyingly) rolling countryside, and having the odd encounter with those tiny ponies the New Forest is known for. This section took a long time, as our tiredness meant stopping to read the map more often. But eventually, we rolled into Christchurch and along onto Avon Beach, the end of our route. After some general proper chuffedness and a quick swim, we walked over to the beachside café to indulge ourselves with a very tasty fried breakfast. I don’t remember ever being so hungry!

So, if there is a message in our bike ride for anyone still reading at this point, it is this: you'd be surprised at how far the limits of what you can do stretch beyond what you imagine yourself to be capable of. And if you haven’t yet donated, do it now!