(Please click the 'read more of my story' button below)

What am I doing?

If I could run a 5km race for life and earn hundreds of pounds for charity  I would but I can neither run well nor enter race for life. I wanted to do something right on the edge of achievable, such is my desire to contribute in any small way that I can. I have never cycled more than 40 miles in my life. I asked a couple of my friends if they wanted to help me, and that is how this came about. This is not an official event; we have no route maps, no support vans or marshalls to aid us if our bikes break down, this is just 3 guys turning up in Manchester and cycling south. I'm aiming for between £100 and £200 raised, and it would mean so much to me if you donated, every little helps.

Why?

In the UK alone over 300,000 people are diagnosed with a form of cancer each year. It is predicted that 1 in 3 of us will develop a form of cancer during some stage of our life. I do not want to go into detail about my personal experience with cancer, it feels a bit too raw and intimate, but like almost everyone my life has been touched by it. 

I have chosen Macmillan as the charity for this as beyond the fantastic work they do I understand how they are wholly (over 98%) reliant on charitable donations, and I respect their transparency regarding how they spend their money and affect people's lives in a positive manner. (http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Aboutus/HowWeRaiseAndSpendOurMoney/RaiseAndSpend.aspx)

If doing this were to help any person whose life has been affected by cancer that would be enough for me. Cancer is horrible and charities like Macmillan do extremely important work fighting it.

Thank you so much

Planned journey

300 miles in 3 days. The route we are taking is the green route shown on the map in the gallery.

Day 1: Old Trafford, Manchester -> Leicester

110 miles, straight over the Peak District including 1500ft climbs that will take hours. Predicted to take 13 and a half hours in the saddle, but I really hope it will not take that long...

Day 2: Leicester -> Oxford

Our 'easy' day, only 85 miles and 8 hours spent in the saddle.

Day 3: Oxford -> HMS Victory, Portsmouth

Attempting to coax our bodies the final 105 miles to the finish, calculated as 12 hours spent cycling. 

Those predicted times are not including any stoppages for lunch or mechanical failures, so we may have to cycle through the night if things go awry, we will do that if necessary.

TL:DR. I made a short video summarising this all here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGod9C01Ucc

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