Five go cycling to help Taylan’s Project fund the fight for a cure...
Taylan was the beautiful son of Figen and Andy Rawlinson. He passed away in August 2009, aged just 7 after battling with a brain tumour for 10 months and is the inspiration behind Taylan’s Project. Taylan's Project was founded in January 2010, to commemorate Taylan's short and happy life and continue, with his legacy, to help others. As an umbrella group part of Brain Tumour Research, its aim is to raise awareness and much needed funds in order to help find a cure for this devastating illness. More children and people under the age of 40 die of a brain tumour than from any other form of cancer. With more than 120 different types of tumours requiring different types of treatments, brain tumours are a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose and treat. The fact that research into the cause of brain tumours is underfunded is heartbreaking and the progress is unfortunately very slow, with just 14% of sufferers surviving beyond five years (compared to over 50% for all other cancers). Brain tumours can occur in anyone but are increasingly affecting the younger population.
A group of five riders (Andy Rawlinson, Ben Greenfield, Tristan Grigalis, Phil Dart and Pete Stratton) will be embarking on a challenge to each cycle 700 miles in just 7 days, led by Taylan’s father Andy.
We will be riding between the seven main universities that are carrying out vital brain tumour research at the end of August 2012. Our team hopes to raise £10,000, but just as importantly, to further raise the profile of Brain Tumour Research’s national £7m ‘Centres of Hope’ fundraising campaign.
We will start our ride in Glasgow on Saturday 25th August, visiting Newcastle, Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol and London, before being met by Professor Geoff Pilkington at the University of Portsmouth’s Centre of Excellence, when we cross the finishing line on Friday 31st August.
Aged between 21 and 44, we have never ridden together as a group before, and whilst none of us is a novice, we all appreciate the size of the challenge that we are taking on.
Planning and training have been underway for several months already but there is still plenty to do. As Andy explains:
“We’ve plotted the journey, hopefully meticulously, in order to avoid busy roads but there’s no getting away from the fact that over the duration of the 700 miles, we’ll also have climbed a total of 6267 metres in height, the equivalent of riding three quarters the height of Mount Everest! Riding as a group will help, but we’re under no illusion that this is anything but a tough ask both physically and mentally. Some of our friends are turning out to ride with us on individual legs of the route and that’ll be a massive boost for us, and we’ll have a support vehicle following us (thanks to Colin Smith!), but we’re all determined that none of us will need it!”
The team is seeking as many corporate sponsors as possible for items from energy bars to hotel rooms, in order to ensure the logistics go as smoothly as possible, so that we can concentrate on keeping those pedals turning.
Taylan was such a caring boy who always wanted to help others. Please help us so that we can start making a difference.
This devastation needs to stop, and with significant funds Brain Tumour Research can improve the research into the causes of, and a possible cure for, brain tumours.
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