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Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. My brother and I and 6 of our friends are doing a charity cycle ride to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care. We will be cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 10 days covering just under 1000 miles. We are raising the money in honour of my wonderful mum, who sadly and tragically passed away last August. My mum was 52. To give you a little context, my mum was admitted to hospital at the advice of her GP in mid-July and unfortunately was soon diagnosed with having a Cancer of sorts. To all who knew her, this was a terrible shock and moreover a massive surprise. Sadly, just 5 weeks later, my mum passed away having ultimately been diagnosed with very aggressive Skin Cancer (Melanoma). As many of you will know, my mum was a very special person – to me she was unique and irreplaceable. For those of you who don’t; a more caring, understanding and above all fun loving person you could not wish to meet. And Marie Curie, their staff and volunteers allowed her to carry on being all of those things up until her passing. As a family we cannot speak highly enough of the care that Marie Curie not only provided for our mum but for all of us as a family. Before last year I was totally oblivious to the extent of the great work that Marie Curie does, I obviously knew about them and that by virtue of being a charity knew that they carried out a lot of good work but I discovered that their work stretches far beyond that of what goes on in their hospices. Not only did they make the week at which my mum spent at their state of the art unit in Glasgow as comforting as possible but they also provided nurses to visit my mum in her own home to enable my mum to spend time with her family in familiar and comfortable surroundings after she was discharged from Marie Curie. I also know firsthand that they also offer a fantastic counselling service for family members after a loved one has passed away. My direct experience with them has really opened my eyes to what they do day in, day out throughout the UK and I guess that the basis of what we are trying to do is raise that awareness to the extent that is resonates with everyone and encourages you to contribute whatever you can for what is a truly fantastic cause. I’ve outlined a few facts about Marie Curie and the service they provide below to give a bit of context as to what any donations made are contributing towards; ·         Marie Curie need £9,212 every hour of every day to carry out their work; ·         £20 provides 1 hour of nursing care; ·         Marie Curie spends over £7,500 every hour of every day directly on nursing, hospices and research; ·         Marie Curie has 2,000 nurses in the UK and last year they worked for 1,200,000 hours caring for terminally ill patients. They also have 9 hospices and are the biggest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS ·         The financial support Marie Curie received last year allowed them to help and care for more than 31,000 people. So please give what you can and know that your generosity genuinely makes a difference to people’s lives when they need it most. My mum and my family benefitted from other people’s donations and it would be great to know that our efforts in some way managed to help towards helping another family. As always, if you are a UK taxpayer please remember to tick the 'Gift Aid' box. On a final note, I am aware that my brother and the other lads taking part also have pages set up and as such there will no doubt be a bit of crossover in our fundraising efforts, so if you have already donated to them then thank you and if you feel like donating again then that is fantastic too. Also please feel free to forward on this link to anyone you think would like to make a donation. Thanks, Damian<a name="QuickMark"></a>

Damian's Land's End to John O'Groats Cycle Challenge

Damian's Land's End to John O'Groats Cycle Challenge

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