Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I’ve worked as a consultant in the Adult Intensive Care Unit at the QMC for the last 21 years, seen the unit grow from 9 to 41 beds and mortality fall from over 21% to around 13% of admissions. This remarkable improvement in mortality in a group of patients (who are by definition the sickest in the hospital) is due to the application of the results of research to clinical practice.

The ICF is a charity associated with the Intensive Care Society of the UK that supports research by funding individual projects and by providing bursaries to support research fellowships and by coordinating national multi-centre research trials. I’m especially keen to support the ICF because I believe it struggles to get the recognition nationally that it merits.

High profile charities tend to support patient groups with a unifying characteristic or chronic disease, e.g. children or cancer sufferers. Unfortunately for the ICF almost any type of illness/injury if extremely severe, can lead to the person concerned requiring intensive care support and although individually patients/families often express their gratitude to and raise money for the specific intensive care unit that cared for them or their loved one, it seems difficult to translate this into a high national profile as (I believe) patients view themselves (perfectly reasonably) as survivors of e.g. cancer not of intensive care.

I'm undertaking this challenge both to raise money and raise the profile of the ICF

Thanks for your help.

The proposed ‘challenge’ is an 880-mile trip with a little over 34,000 feet of climbing. My aim is to complete this in 4 days or less.

I give myself about a 30% chance of successfully completing the ride (regardless of time), the main worries being sheer exhaustion and developing injury (I know from experience that a niggle can develop into agony when you can’t rest).

I hope not only to raise money for the ICF but also to raise its profile whenever possible.

You can see my route in detail on the ridewithgps website at

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6803105

I intend to provide information on my progress by GPS tracking and social media if at all possible.