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On 30th July 2017 I am cycling the 100 mile Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 event with the aim of raising £1000 for Farleigh Hospice.

Having failed to run the London Marathon last year for Farleigh Hospice due to injury, and the realisation that it’s a hell of a long way on foot, this year I have decided to try and cycle 100 miles in a day as an alternative challenge!

I had a place to run the London Marathon in 2016 for Farleigh Hospice. The marathon was on the day before my 40th Birthday so it seemed a fitting way to celebrate the last day of my thirties/start of my forties and a great way to raise loads of money for a worthwhile local charity. Unfortunately, in late 2015 I developed shin splints and having tried to ‘run them off’ I came to the realisation that the only way to recover was to stop running for a while and let them recover naturally over time. This scuppered my marathon training plan and I had to pull out. While laying off the running I bought myself a road bike, joined a local cycling club and have reignited my passion for cycling. I have now decided to raise money for Farleigh Hospice by cycling the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 instead.


The Challenge:
The ride starts off from the Olympic Park in Stratford, out through the City of London, Richmond Park and Kingston-upon-Thames. Riders continue south into Surrey before tackling the biggest ascent on the route at Leith Hill. After a well-earned descent towards Dorking, it's onto the next challenge: the world-famous zig-zags of Box Hill. After heading north through Leatherhead, Oxshott and Esher the route takes riders back into London through Kingston and over Putney Bridge, along the Embankment, heading past some of London’s most famous landmarks as it makes its way across Parliament Square and up Whitehall. The route then swings left at Trafalgar Square, with riders streaming under Admiralty Arch before a spectacular finish on The Mall.

Riding a century is seen by many to be the cyclists equivalent of a marathon. So it’s no small challenge, especially when you factor in two of the South East’s highest hills at about the 60 mile mark when I’m used to the flat roads of Essex!

I have already started training for the ride and am slowly building up my mileage. Club rides are usually about 50 miles in length and I have tagged on a few extra miles over the last few weeks. I've entered a series of local Sportives between now and the end of July to give myself some experience of riding in a big event and with a large number of other riders around me. These events should also help me build the distance without having to ride alone. My longest training ride will probably be around 80 miles in length.

Although my main aim is to get to the finish and raise lots of money for Farleigh Hospice, I’d like to complete the ride in under 7 hours.


Why I’m doing this:
When deciding upon a charity to raise money for I considered the large national charities but felt that I wanted to raise money for a local charity that supported the people of mid Essex and wasn’t fortunate enough to benefit from large national fund raising campaigns. I have been aware of the great work that Farleigh Hospice do for a number of years due to the help they have given to a number of friends. They are a relatively small charity and provide hospice care to people affected by life-limiting illnesses and support to their families, carers and those that have been bereaved across mid Essex.

All of the services provided by Farleigh Hospice are completely free of charge. The cost of running these services continues to increase each year as they care for an ever increasing number of patients. Last year a total of 10,757 people accessed their services and their total expenditure was £10,704,000. It costs £15,595 to provide their services each day.
With approximately 44% of their yearly running costs being funded by the local NHS, Farleigh Hospice relies on the support and goodwill of the local mid Essex community to make up the shortfall.

What your donation could pay for:
£20 is enough to fund a craft therapy session for up to five patients
£40 could relieve pain and stress by funding a massage therapy session for a patient or carer
£110 funds a home visit from a Community Nurse Specialist
£280 would fund weekly carer coffee mornings for a month
£509 could fund the Bereavement Service for a whole day
£527 would fund a 24hr stay for a patient on the Inpatient Unit, allowing Farleigh to care for more complex needs and providing respite for carers.

For more information about Farleigh Hospice please visit their website:
https://www.farleighhospice.org/


Any money you can donate, no matter how small, will be much appreciated and go towards providing these much needed services. Knowing my efforts are helping to raise money for Farleigh Hospice will certainly help me in training and on the day on those hills!


If you’re a UK tax payer please consider adding Gift Aid to your donation. Gift Aid is a UK Government initiative that allows charities to claim 25% tax relief on every donation. This means that for every £1 donated, HMRC provides an additional £0.25 supplement.

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Thanks for visiting my JustGiving page and many thanks if you have donated. I will be posting regular updates on my training rides so please be sure to check back to track my progress!

Thanks
Andy (& Farleigh Hospice)