We are Henry Duncan and Tom Bishop and we have set ourselves the challenge of cycling 600 miles from Bristol to Najac in France, in September- October 2017. 

We will be cycling in memory of Henry's dad Ian, who died in February 2016 as a result of Alzheimer's at the age of 71. We are also doing this to reach out in love and support to everyone we know whose lives are affected by dementia.

Ian was tragically diagnosed with early onset dementia when he was just 66, having already shown signs of deteriorating mental agility. A respected structural engineer, company director and lecturer, Ian had recently retired from engineering practice and was still lecturing at the University of Bristol.

When Ian died, his brain was donated for research to the South West Dementia Brain Bank. Established by BRACE, this is a laboratory housed within the Learning & Research Building at Southmead Hospital. It is part of the University of Bristol's School of Clinical Sciences and aims to support dementia research that has the potential to contribute to our understanding of the underlying diseases or to be of value to sufferers and their families. 

BRACE aims to:

• provide the means by which medical science comes to understand what causes dementia in its various forms
• achieve earlier diagnosis of dementia, thereby giving new treatments and knowledge of prevention more time to make a difference
• find new and more powerful treatments

For more information on BRACE see below.

The non-stop 7-day cycle ride down through central France will take us to the farmhouse in Najac that Ian and Henry renovated together, where Ian had planned to spend his retirement. We will travel by ferry to St Malo on September 30 and hope to arrive in Najac on 6 October, flying back to the UK from Toulouse on 8 Oct. There are maps of our planned route in the selection of images below. 

We expect to be covering around 80-100 miles every day, carrying super light weight camping gear and as little clothing as we can get away with. For both of us this is the first time we've done such a big ride and we are just hoping that we can continue to cram in enough training so that our fitness is up to it...both of us are dads to two young children, so squeezing in the much needed training has been and continues to be a major challenge in itself....for ourselves and our families !  

Please give generously to help us raise money for an organisation whose aim is to improve our understanding of this disease. BRACE are researching prevention and treatments, which we hope future generations will be able to take for granted.