Hi there,  just to say that against all the odds, I am taking part in the Prudential
Ride London 100 for Headway Jersey.

HeadwayJersey needs your help to provide support to people like me who have
unfortunately suffered a brain injury.

I have always had a bike since the age of 4.

I cycled around the British Isles in 1968, at the age of 14, with my brothers and
sister. In 1988, I cycled from Rome to London in a month, with my wife, we
climbed up 9 cols and clocked up 1,500 miles without a single puncture between
us.

I still love riding and anything to do with bicycles today.

As most of you know, I had a serious cycling accident, causing a head injury 18
months ago. 

The road to recovery has been a very long one.   Although my physical injuries have now largely healed, the brain is taking much longer.  I had several months
of intense physiotherapy and superb support from various hospital departments
and agencies: the Brain Injury Clinic, Physiotherapy, Eye Clinic, Fracture clinic, Memory Clinic and Speech & Language therapy.

As part of my recovery, I have had to do many strange exercises. To improve my
balance I had to stand upright and gaze ahead at an object, then stand with my
eyes closed; I promptly fell over.  I also had to look at lollipop sticks with stickers on them and cardboard cats to improve my sight.  I had hours of physio
exercises and memory homework to do every day to help me. The spare room was turned into my rehab room and it has to be said my wife resorted to bribing me with chocolate to do it all at times.

Life has often been difficult and challenging since the accident, but it has also
had some amusing moments.  I often forgot where the car was parked in town and would have to visit all the car parks to find it.  I made the mistake of phoning
my bank about a straightforward change in our account when Jill, my wife,
wasn’t with me.  I got all the security questions wrong [including my d.o.b.] so the bank froze our account.  My understanding wife had to go to town to explain my situation.

I am now back on my bike. I love cycling as much as ever. I am so pleased to be
part of the team cycling the Prudential Ride London 100 for Headway Jersey.

I have so much empathy and understanding for people and their families who have a brain injury.  Headway offers fantastic support to people living with a brain injury. I am so pleased to be supporting Headway with the Ride London 100
challenge.

Headway members may have suffered strokes, brain tumours or have sadly been the victim of accidents causing traumatic brain injury. The members and their families benefit from a vast range of services from physical and cognitive
rehabilitation to advocacy support. There is a member centre which is a vital
part of recovery, wellbeing and can provide vital respite for families and
carers. Headway Jersey depends heavily on the generosity of charitable events
and donations, without this they would not be able to sustain their incredibly
valuable services. Please, please donate!

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.

Thank for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.