Please scroll through the pictures to see our journey so far. This is going to be our toughest challenge yet after the incredible 2020 London to Paris bike ride, and the relentless London Marathon where between them, we raised a total of £12000.

Between the 25th and 29th July this year, Six riders and 2 support drivers are taking on the Scottish Highlands in a 5 day, 400 mile, 18000ft ascent by bike, in order to raise money for this incredible children’s hospital. The team are:

Tom Golding- rider

Steve Porter- rider

Jamie Perfitt- rider

Peter Stanley- rider

Adam Perfitt- rider

Cavan Furlong- rider

Chris Golding- support driver

Tom Pandolfino- support driver

Tom and Becky’s story:

Our daughter Isabelle was born in April 2018 with a rare and life-threatening birth defect that no one knew about. During her development in the womb, her food pipe mistakenly connected to her airway instead of to her stomach. Without surgery to fix it, this birth defect is fatal. At a day old, she was rushed to the paediatric intensive care unit at Evelina London Children's Hospital, where she had emergency surgery the next day. Six days later she was moved to a ward for two weeks and she was then in and out of hospital off and on for another eight weeks. She was admitted to hospital a total of 16 times in the first year, and has had to have a feeding tube (PEG) placed in her stomach to help her get enough calories and fluid. As a result of her condition, Izzy will require ongoing treatment and will therefore remain an Evelina patient until she is 18 years old.

As if this experience was not hard enough for us all as a family, when our second child William entered the world, we took a massive psychological hit when he too had to be transferred to the Evelina at just 2 days old. William stopped breathing twice whilst in hospital, requiring urgent medical attention, and he was struggling to keep any fluid down without vomiting. William spent a total of 3 months in the Evelina, where multiple tests were carried out before finding that he had too had a problem with his swallow. Once William was well enough, he was able to come home but with two tubes in his nose- one to his stomach for medication, and the second to his small intestine, to provide milk constantly over a 16 hour period via a pump. At nine months old after a month back at Evelina, where more tests were carried out, it was established that William would also need a PEG. William is 2 1/2 now and despite multiple attempts to wean him onto thickened fluid with our community teams, he is still unfortunately nil by mouth for fluid, and so he is awaiting further investigation. Like Izzy, he will be monitored until he is 18 years old.

It goes without saying that our story could have had a very different ending both times if it wasn't for the unbelievable treatment and care that Izzy and Will received at Evelina. Every single member of staff at that hospital is an angel in disguise. Our story is just one of many that happen every single day at Evelina, and every penny that is donated here will help parents and children get through some of their worst days.

It is for this reason, that we will be undertaking the 400 mile journey around the adapted NC500 route, starting and finishing in Inverness. The ascents are constant, and the flats are rare! 

Thank you so much for reading and thank you for donating to this incredible children’s hospital .

Tom, Becky, Izzy and Will