Well who would have thought i would do something as monumetal as this!

In truth it all began three years ago,around this time of the year. I was working on a commercial with Jake Scott, and listened with concealed envy about the Fireflies Ride. In my deluded dreams i could see myself riding triumphantly into Cannes having cycled 1000km across the Alps to mark my 50th year on this earth.

In reality, it was a further eighteen months before I jumped on my son's mountain bike and rode seven miles to my friends house and collapsed on the floor gasping for breath.

So here we are, 1000miles on a clapped out mountain bike, 2000+ on a new hybrid, and recently my gleaming pedigree Italian Stallion that flies !!! me up the wild hills of the Chilterns every weekend. Sore legs, sore a..e, a diet that would humble a monk, a fetish like appreciation for all things lycra, I'm ready!

Dreams have come true, I will ride (God willing) into Cannes on the 18th June 2008 , not triumphant, but humbled by the effort and pain I have had to go through, on my 53rd birthday.

Your money, if you are generous enough to sponser me, will go directly to Leuka and help fund the research into Leukaemia, not the running of the unit, the research. Dreams take effort and in reality don't come quick or easy, your donation is valuable .

Thank you

Stewart Hadley, A slightly thinner bear on a bike.