Ok, time for a quick update! I set off on the trip of a lifetime on April 10, 2007, to undertake the gruelling challenge of completing the 6,000km North Sea Cycle Route.

The North Sea Cycle Route is the longest signposted coastal path in the world and starting at Harwich ferry port I will pedal my way through northern Europe, Scandinavia, Shetland and Orkney, before heading back to the starting point via Scotland and England.

The last bit should be easy as it is all down hill on the map!

So far I have clocked up more than 2,000kms in just under a month and I'm nearing my fourth country, Sweden. The trip has been amazing so far and I've had so many adventures from being kept off the street at night by the Bethlehem family in the Netherlands, to putting up my tent in the garden of a family I met on the road. I've been plucked off the streets, again, by the North Sea wife and tasted the nightlife of the German surf bums techno barndance at the Wunder Bar in Sylt. And then there was Ribe, Denmark, home of vikings, witches burnt alive and pirates' heads on stakes! And in Skagen, I could put my feet in two seas at the same time as the waves crashed behind me and the seals looked on a few metres away! The reason I took up this two wheeled torture is to raise as much money as I can for Cancer Research UK.

Over the last year I have lost both my dear mum and my partner Katie's mother to brain tumours. Both women were in their early 50s, what should have been the prime of their life, and left us far, far too early.

As you can imagine it has been a very rough time and I want to know that I have done everything I can, in their memory, to help other people who could see their loved ones battling this terrible disease in the future.

I will also be writing a book about my adventure - Cycling Back to Happiness - and if you would like more information about me or my scribblings then please email me at berniebike@hotmail.co.uk

My trip will take three months and I will be checking my messages on the road so please say hello!

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Cancer Research UK will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So get your hands out of your pockets and sponsor me now!

Cheers for your support!

Bernie