Update 17.08.14

Big thanks to Cotswold Veldrijden for contributing an additional £350 from cake sales at the cyclocross summer series!

Update: 31.07.14

12hr Challenge was every bit as hard as I imagined it would be, but a great experience shared with some top friends. Thanks to Mandy, Marc and Rob for joining me for the full 12hrs and to all my team mates, family and friends who supported us all day. Final total from the bucket collection was an excellent £789.54! Fantastic! 

Update: 14.07.14

Under 2 weeks until my next challenge! 12hours non stop interval training on the turbo trainer in the Brunel Centre, Swindon! Please come and support myself and our team on the 26th July as we cycle from 7am-7pm. It's going to be tough, but with some great mates joining in with the suffering, it should be a good laugh. Please come and support/say hi if you're in town!

Update: 01.06.14

Challenge 1 - Done! 500miles on the bike in 5 days. Any ideas of it being a nice sunny week to enjoy on the bike disappeared early on. Rain, wind and more rain made riding solo doubly tough up the Whiteway on Wednesday and large parts of Thursday en route to Poole. Thankfully Friday was dry and generally calm and the return to Swindon was almost enjoyable. Finishing off on Saturday with my club mates was great. Warm temperatures and minimal wind demanded a 'burn up' for the last 35miles with a couple of riding buddies joining me for 'bonus miles' after the club ride. A great finish to a tough 1st challenge.

Now to prepare for Challenge 2, the 12hr Turbo challenge on the 26th July...

Update: 26.05.14

This week is the week for Challenge 1, but disaster hit 3 weeks ago forcing a change of plans. James Brown, my tandem partner for the Tour of Belgium crashed while qualifying for the Commonwealth Games! A trip in an air ambulance set him on his recovery from a broken clavicle and 5 broken ribs. Ouch! So while James slowly pieces himself back together, challenge 1 has become a solo venture...

Starting tomorrow morning, I'm going to cycle 500miles in 5 days (yes, you brainy mathematicians, that's 1 century a day!) Hopefully meeting up with some friends along the way. You might be concerned I'll be taking it easy, "that's no challenge" I hear you say. Don't worry, I'll still be chain ganging, sprint training and putting in all the usual weekly sessions

If anyone wants to join me for part or whole stages on Tuesday or Wednesday let me know, company more than welcome!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

A decade ago I was a fit, healthy 20 year old and a keen swimmer. A diagnosis of Testicular Cancer was a wake up call and illustrated that it can be pretty indiscriminate regardless of fitness and lifestyle.

The work of Cancer Research and others has meant that Testicular Cancer is now one of the most treatable forms of the disease. The advent of Cisplatin was apparently something of a golden bullet. 3 months of chemotherapy blasted the tumours and weeks later I was back doing the thing I enjoyed most...sport. But scientists continue to look for 'the key' to targeting many other forms of cancer for whom suffers can not hope for such positive outcomes.

After 10 disease free years, swimming, rowing, cycling and loving every minute, it feels apt that they form a part of a challenge to try and give a little something back. So I've set myself a trio of challenges for 2014 supported with some good friends:

1. The Tour of Belgium: May 29th-June 1st. A 4 day stage race contested on Tandems. I'll be piloting 2012 Paralympic Bronze medallist, James Brown over 4 days of furious racing covering 320km against some of the best pairings in the world.

2. Knights of Sufferlandria: 26th July - Brunel Shopping Centre. A 12 hour non stop challenge on static bikes, covering 10 of the infamous Sufferfest cycle training videos. This one is going to hurt! Hopefully some friends will join me to share the suffering alongside me!

3. Snowdon Quadrathlon: October. A team challenge with a few of the friends who were instrumental in seeing me through my time with cancer. Beginning with a 60mile bike ride to the base of Mount Snowdon, a 3km surf rescue board paddle and a double ascent of Mount Snowdon split with an icy 400m open water swim.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page, every little that you can donate helps.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.