Story
Offline Donations consist of:
£300 from Cemex
£100 from Henry ISon and Sons Funeral Directors
£604 Darren Keylock Sponsor Money
£503.40 collected by Sainsburys and Coventry Scouts
£802.50 Mark Lavery Sponsor Money
£674.50 Gaz Davies Sponsor Money
£408 Mike Reid Sponsor Money
There is still alot of money to be collected from the rest of the riders in the form of sponsor money.
On 30th June 2008, my little sister Kirsty, died of D.K.A (Diabetic Ketoacidosis).
She was just 17 years old and it was a massive hit to all of our family and friends.
In August 2010, a team of riders made up of family and close friends are attempting to ride from John O Groats to Lands End in 10 days in memory of Kirsty and to raise as much money as possible for Diabetes UK.
So come on guys, dig deep in your pockets for Kirsty and all the others out there who suffer from diabetes.
The Team of riders so far consists of
Michelle Watson
Nicky Watson
Darren Keylock
Mikey Mike Reid
Gaz Davies
Mark Lavery
The Support Team for the ride consists of
Malcolm
Andy
Terry
Roger
Support Team Members who ill participate at certain stop offs are:
Tina
Shirley
Wendy
Glynn
Geoff
Coventry Central Young Firefirghters Association.
The story so far........
The first planning meeting was a complete success. It took place in November in Coventry. The main outcome of the meeting was the planned route and a lot of good ideas for sponsorship.
A first look at the route will be undertaken by Chelle and Nick on the weekend of 19th December. It looks to be an amazing route taking in the sights of Loch Lommond, Ben Nevis and the Lake district. The Northern stage will culminate in an overnight stop in Coventry where we will hopefully have photograph oppertunities, a chance to speak to the local newspapers and a chance to get a good nights sleep!!!
The next day we will be back in the saddle heading off into Shakespeare Country, the Fosse way and on into the Cotswolds where we will hang a hard right into the West Country, through Dartmoor and on to the cornish coast line before finishing with a good beer on the beach at Lands End!!
Photographs of the route planning will be published on this sight for all to see.
Sponsorship ideas are a plenty so watch this space. We aim to take the cycle to the town centres of Leammington, Coventry and Hereford after Christmas, dates to be confirmed.
Please sponsor this great event. It is for a good cause and hopefully we can do Kirsty proud.
19th December 2009 - The First Look at the Northern Stage Of The Cycle
Michelle and Nick set off on a cold Saturday morning on what could potentially be a 1400 mile round trip to John O Groats and back to Coventry. Oh how wrong we were!!!
The drive from Coventry to the Peak district took a little longer than anticipated and we reached Buxton by eleven o clock having talked to the owner of a camp site and and potentially secured a stop over location. In the end, this came to nothing so onwards and upwards to the Lake district through the Yorkshire dales, Rochdale, Burnley finally arriving just outside Penrith. This will be stage 5 of our trip and we nicknamed this the Mountain Stage for what will become obvious to the guys in the saddles!!! Look out for the Pendle Climb guys!!!
We hit the snow in Carlisle and what a snow storm. Down to 30 mph for the next 100 miles which was a rare treat!! We pushed through to a village called Sanquhar. A really beautiful place where we will be staying at the Newark Farm on the 4th August.
We had to call it a day at Loch Lomond as the snow was getting too bad and time was ticking on. We made the decision to not go any further so found a nice parking area which we would call home for the twighlight hours. A ford fiests makes such a nice bed when you've been driving for the best part of 12 hours!!!
Sunday morning came and we hit the motor way hoping it would be clear. Fat chance!!! A cup of very strong coffee and a bacon butty later and we were off on another 13 hour day in the chair.
Joking aside, that couple of days was a fantastic laugh and chelle and I achieved a lot. We now have the northern route which is as follows:
Day 1: John o groats to Inverness - 119 miles
Day 2: Inverness to Crianlarich - 115 miles
Day 3: Crianlarich to Sanquhar - 100 miles
Day 4: Sanquhar to Penrith - 100 miles
Day 5: Penrith to Glossop - 100 miles
Day 6: Glossop to Coventry - 90 miles.
Job well done!!
16th January 2010 - Planning Meeting
The night went well as we introduced the route and discussed it in detail. A lot of good points came from this.
A couple of mentions I need to add:
1. A special thanks to Newark Farm in Sanquhar which will accomodating us on the evening of day 3. We have been kindly offered the use of a Static caravan with Mod cons and a pitch of land for the tents. This is fantastic. Thank you. www.newarkfarm.com
2. A special thanks to Craig and Kery Flack of Roselands Caravan Park, St Just, Penzance who have kindly donated the use of their campsite. Fantastic support. Thankyou. www.roselands.co.uk
3. A special thank you to Mr Charles Lowther of Clifton, Penrith for arranging accommodation for us as we ride into Penrith. No doubt a couple of well earned drinks and a good meal will be sampled at his country pub, The George and Dragon. Thank you Charles. www.georgeanddragonclifton.co.uk
4. A special mention to Wendy, Glynn and Sam Smyth who have kindly allowed us the use of their cookset for the duration. As well as this, they are organising the Scout HQ in Glossop for us to stay on the evening of day 5 which is fantastic. Thank you.
5. A warm hello to Mark L, our newest addition to the team who will be cycling the 1000 miles with us.
Upcoming Events:
1. Saturday 22nd May - Charity Rugby match at Barker Butts RFC, Coventry, followed by entertainment in the evening. All are welcome. The more the merrier.
2. The team photograph will take place at the Old Cathedral ruins in Coventry City Centre on 7th March 2010 and will be published on this website for all to see.
7th March 2010- The Team photograph was a complete success as can be seen above. Thank you to everyone who turned up.
Training for the event is now becoming pretty heavy with big rides being undertaken by all. A group ride is going ahead on the 9th May 2010 and will be a dress rehearsal of day 6 whan we ride into Coventry.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship has also turned up a gear and the donations are flooding in. Thank you so much to everyone taking time out to support this event and honour our cause. It is very much appreciated.
Many thanks to the Young Firefighters Association in Coventry who did a sponsored Bag Pack at Sainsburys Supermarket, Courthouse Green.
A big thank you to Mrs Pat Reid who did a collection at the Bretford Dog Show. All donations are very much appreciated.
To everyone, a fantastic achievement.
The Route In Full
The route has now been decided and accomodation sorted out for every stage. The route is now as follows:
Day 1: John O'Groats to Inverness
Day 2: Inverness to Crianlarich
Day 3: Crianlarich to Sanquhar
Day 4: Sanquhar to Penrith
Day 5: Penrith to Glossop
Day 6: Glossop to Coventry
Day 7: Coventry to Cirencester
Day 8: Cirencester to Taunton
Day 9: Taunton to Bude
Day 10: Bude to Lands End
Special Mentions:
The Minibus has now been sought and will be supplied by the Play For Success charity in partnership with Mosely Rugby Club. This is a amazing. Many thanks for this very kind donation.
The Daneway Inn at Cirencester have kindly donated a nights accommodation once we get to Cirencester. This is very much appreciated and I'm sure a good pub meal will be just the ticket. www.thedaneway.com
Training Ride
Sunday the 9th of May 2010, the first proper training ride as a team.
We all set off from Coventry at roughly 6am for the drive up to Glossop, arriving in Glossop and ready to set off back down to Coventry at 9am.
Unlucky for the riders but to start with a nice big hill, Just what you need to get warmed up, Luckily for the riders the admin team were at the top to resolve any issues that may have occurred, bike wise or riders in the initial part of the day.
Everything in check and the riders set off once again. Admin team came to a decision that ever 10 – 12 miles we would find a suitable location for the riders to fill up on fluids and food if they needed to. This proved to work well and will be stuck to for the duration of the Big Ride in August.
We only had a few minor glitches on the training ride, of which are now rectified.
Gaz (rider) encountered a problem which we expect to happen throughout the big ride, and luckily for all the repairing of punctures/inner tubes is now a fast process. After all he did get 3. This put both the riders and the admin team into practice and Gaz managed to get back in on the training ride and complete it. Another key issue raised is navigation, the TEAM LEADER (Nick) and Mark managed to get navigationally challenged around the town centre of Tamworth. Luckily we all had communications via mobile phone and when Nick realised something wasn’t right the admin team managed to talk them through where they had gone wrong and put them on the right track.
Finally we arrived at our final destination Coventry at roughly 1745. Overall a success with a few teething problems on route. Well done everyone.
Charity Rugby Match
Saturday 22nd May 2010 Kirsty’s Team vs Coventry Saracens.
Beautiful day to have the match, with a bouncy castle, face painting, BBQ and raffle all going on another brilliant day, with a good turn out of people. Raffle prizes ranging from an overnight stay at the village hotel Coventry, Coventry Blaze Ice hockey tickets, Signed Newcastle Falcons Shirts to bottles of wine and Champaign.
So a massive thanks to everyone who was involved with that players organisers and support.
The Ride itself....
Well what can we say other than epic, an absolutely brilliant 10 days riding.
The support team were fantastic and made the whole event possible without them it would of been a grim 10 days.
The first few days were gruelling with days over over 100 miles a day in order to make the final destination on time, spirits were still high even with the rain and the unavoidable diversions which we encountered.
Riding into Coventry was an amazing feeling, with friends and family gathered at the Fire Station in support of us was a great end to the first week of riding, with a roof over our heads any bikes which required some TLC James was on hand to assist, a good nights sleep and off we set for cirencester sunday morning. Our shortest ride of the event, and oh yes thats right another up hill diversion crept in, the sun was beating down and everyone was suprisingly still smiling. Alot of banter was had along the way between riders and support crew which ultimately kept everyone going.
As the end was drawing close of what turned out to be a wonderful but tiring experience I was starting to dread the last part of the ride the closing day into lands end, where everyon else was looking forward to it I wasnt so much.
A few miles out of Lands End I picked my 4 year old son up on his bike with the gator bar (which may I add was heavier than most of the bikes) so he could ride the last bit in with us.
He abolustely loved every minute of it and truely got into it. So all those doubts of it being the hardest part soon evaporated as we all rode into lands end. The support team and some family members once again were there to meet us and cheer us in.
Photos were taken and after everyone took the opportunity to take a min and reflect on what we had achieved, before piling our kit into the van and ourselves into the bus to put our tents up for the final night and went out for a well deserved meal.
I just want to say to everyone who supported, took part, sponsored/donated to the ride a huge Thank You. As you can all imagine it was a truely magnificant achievement for all and will not be forgotten. Cheers Guys :-)