Nick and Simon both love cycling. They have the same birthday, are both unusually short for a man, and tend to do the same silly things. So when Nick decided he was going to ride from Land's End to John O Groats, it was obvious that Simon would do it too.
Between 13-19 June 2010 we'll be cycling from Land's End to John O Groats. The route - which will be around 1,000 miles - is longer than necessary because we want to avoid main roads. In 7 days this will be quite a challenge - around 140 miles per day - but we've both been putting in lots of hours in the saddle over winter and we plan on training very hard over the coming months.
We're taking this very seriously and have set ourselves a tough challenge as we really want to raise as much as we can for two charities that are important to us and our support crew.
The Haemophilia Society is the only national and independent organisation for all people affected by bleeding disorders. The Society is led by affected people and works in close partnership with the NHS. It provides information and support for all people affected by bleeding disorders and represents their interests. In particular, The Society has done brilliant work helping people who became ill after being treated with infected blood products in the 1980s. Nick, his twin brother Rich, and many members of our family have Haemophilia, and all the family and lots of our friends have been affected by it.
Beating Bowel Cancer works with bowel cancer patients to raise awareness of symptoms, promote early diagnosis and encourage open access to treatment choice for those affected by bowel cancer. They produce really helpful information booklets describing the disease and explaining what patients and their families can expect. Early diagnosis of bowel cancer hugely improves the prognosis and therefore the charity's work in this area needs as much support as possible. Nick's Dad, Blyth, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in the summer of 2009 and is currently undergoing treatment as he fights off the disease. Blyth is a keen cyclist and has provided the motivation for this trip.
Of course we don't expect people to donate to both our justgiving pages, but we're keen to collect money for two very worthwhile charities. This page is for the Haemophilia Society. If you would prefer to donate towards Beating Bowel Cancer please go to www.justgiving.com/nickandsimon.
For a blog giving updates on how our training is going, please go to http://bloodsweatandtyres.blogspot.com/
Anything you can afford to donate will be very gratefully received.
Simon and Nick
