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On  the 19th October  2006 in Wishaw General Hospital  Scotland my wife and I received into the world Jayden River Groom and Kayla Mellissa Groom.

After recieving IVF treatment in Barcelona and all the stress and financial outlay that had gone with it, to finally arrive at this day was the most overwhelming day of our lives.

It really did seem too good to be true that we had a boy and girl , twins arriving into our family . we had become parents to two beautiful healthly babies  

There were some difficulties Frankie's blood pressure was 210/115 and Kayla was only 4lb 15oz's and not feeding more than 15ml's at a time.While Jayden was 5lb 13oz's and was feeding well.

Frankie and Kayla had to remain in hospital and it made perfect sence for Jayden to remain in with them. It would be 14 days until we could all get home together.

Both children blossomed through the first 6 months of life and  everything was perfect both of us returned to work arranging childcare between us , then on the 16th of May 2007 while Frankie worked nightshift in the Nursing home I put Jayden and Kayla to bed as usual and went to bed myself ,I was wakened by Kayla crying over the baby monitor at 7.05am May 17th.,I heated 2 bottles up and went in to their nursery and discovered every parents worst nightmare.

Jayden was lying motionless on his back.I lifted him from the cot his neck limp and placing him on the floor I began mouth to mouth but there was no response, I called 999 who instructed me to continue with the mouth to mouth until the ambulance arrived. I remember when they arrived hanging up the phone and seeing I'd been trying in vain to resuscitate my son for 14 minutes and 15 seconds.

The enormity of what we were about  to come to terms with hadn't even reached Frankie yet. Who was doing a morning ward round and hadn't been found by the lady taking my call.

Our perfect world hadn't even lasted 7 months and our lives had been ripped apart.

We are coming up to 4 years since that day ,Frankie and i have had some dark days since then .The death of a loved one leaves a void in your life like no other. I've lost both my parents and at 53 and 64 they were both taken from me at a young age but at least my sister and i survived them, for our baby boy to be taken from us just doesn't right, words can not explain the pain and anguish you feel , But life has to go on, we had Kayla  to consider, she inspired us to do this, giving us a purpose and providing a great deal of pleasure along the way. Kayla, starts school in august of this year and we are so proud of her.

The Scottish Cot death Trust  supported us through this difficult time  sent letters and monthly magazines detailing   event dates ,calendars etc and I've found it hard to read these up until recently (some emotions are blocked out as a defence mechanism),but I seem to have moved on in recent months.

One thing that happened to me was I lost my zest for life you don't really notice at the time it's when you reflect you realise. I'd always been one for outdoor activites,general exercise,football, golf  you name it. My interest in these things diminished almost undetected until last May 2010 when tipping the scales at 101k.g's I'd reached the point where I was going to do something about it I'd spent most of my adult life at around 80k.g's but in 3 years I'd jumped up to 101k.g's.

I started cycling for the first time in 18 years in June last year managing a few 20 mile journey's I plucked up the courage to enter a 100 mile Sportive in September and managed to complete it.

I then, excited by my acheivement started to think about the possibility of cycling the length of the country I looked it up on the internet and found a couple of charities doing organised tours asking for minimum fund raising figures in excess of £2000 riding in groups staying in tents organised by the fund raisers and it didn't seem right and I was put off.

I then came back to my idea in early January of this year with far more purpose and drive.  I  personally needed to do this bike ride in the memory of Jayden River Groom and I needed to do this bike ride for the Scottish Cot Death Trust and I needed to this bike ride in the month of May.

The idea started to take shape the charities were all focusing on 9 days of 100 mile legs.

I wanted to do this in 1 week. There was 1 week between Jayden's passing and his funeral and I had made my mind up that was when I wanted to do the challenge.7 days 130 miles each day. Day one would be completed on the 4th aniversary of my son's last day on earth (I believe from other peoples accounts of doing this journey, day one has the steepest climbs through the Cornish hills) .Memories of my son will carry me over those hills and into day 2. The journey will be completed on May 22nd 2011 and Frankie and Kayla will travel up and meet me in John O'Groat's and we shall spend a family day together on Jayden's 4th anniversary the 23rd of May 2011 .

So the dates were set May 16th-22nd 2011.Jay Groom will cycle 130 miles a day for a week to raise awareness and funds for the Scottish Cot Death trust.

I will seek charitable donations for travel by train to Penzance and 8 nights accomodation separetly to this site so that all donations made via this website go to the Scottish cot death Trust and they in turn can claim back the gift aid on donations made by UK taxpayers.

So please do give genourously so that I can make this a worthy and worthwhile and fullfilling experience.

I would also recommend cycling to anyone wanting to get fit or add a little more excercise into there lives.

You can also join me on my journey to lend your support whether it be for a full leg , part of a leg,  or just meet me for a coffee.

I was born in Manchester and have family and friends there, I live in Lesmahagow South Lanarkshire and work in Glasgow

I'll be passing near Manchester on 18th /19th of May and I'll be passing by Lesmahagow and Glasgow on the 21st of May who knows maybe I'll see one or two of you.  

Thanks for taking the time to read my page and please help me reach my target.

Major setback occured at around 12.30pm 24/02/2011 while cycling down a mountain on the Island of Arran at over 40mph I came off the road flipping the bike and breaking my collar bone in the landing. 

I must thank my friend Ewan who was with me at the time of the accident, for his help and support and all the medical staff on the Island of Arran who were all very pleasant and sympathetic(although there knowledge of dangerous roads and numorous cycling accidents on the Island came too late.)

My friends and family seem none to suprised at my setback with my wife pointing out that I got beaten up in Edinburgh years ago and was left with black eyes, cut face bruised body 1 day before we had to travel to Manchester for a double funeral for my Auntie and the following day for a friends, I also smashed my front teeth out surfing 2 days before our wedding but still made the big day with a smile on my face. 

Update on health Sunday March 20th 2011.

24 days after the accident and things are going really well about 70% of the pain in my ribs has now gone and I can only pressume that my collar bone is healing as I've not been given any pain from it in the last 10 days although my right arm is now starting to look thinner I'm sure by the time it's allowed out of the sling it will resemble a pencil.

Training has now re-commenced i'm back on a bike unfortunatley it's an excercise bike but at least with the ribs healing I can now tollerate sitting on the bike, it started last week with 10k at a very leisurely pace and I've built it up, yesterday I managed 100k.

Update 18th April 2011 a 2nd scan has shown that the bones have knitted together and are doing well, I am now in a race to be fit for a race, my GP seemed shocked at my progress and eagerness to return to work and when I told him of my charity ride and that I had already been back on the bike he seemed gobsmacked.

So there's now only 4 weeks to go before the "Blazzing saddles  Tour" kicks off

 

I'd like to Thank everyone who has sponsored me for this ride.I really have been overwhelmed by the donations I've seen coming in.This is the first time I've ever gone out specificly to raise money for charity on my own and I was quite nervous about the fund raising aspect of it but your kindness has made that side of it so much easier.

 I'd also like to thank my wife Frankie and her daughters Tracy and Diane who have all climbed onboard with more enthusiasum than I could of ever imagined, they've organised a charity night, collected in a multitude of prizes, organised a raffle, been to our caravan for the opening night of the season and raised over £400 which will be added to the site shortly.They will also be in our local Tesco's this coming weekend both bag packing and at the front entrance so I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing them the best of luck for then.   

You can follow me on my blog site www.lejogsforjayden.blogspot.com to see how the trainings going or isn't as the case maybe and i'll also blog at the end of each day during the challenge.

Thanks

Jay,Frankie,Kayla and Jayden

      

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