Mason Baggott and Garton are taking on the Nightrider challenge to raise money for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund. I'm going to be cycling 100km around the streets of London over night on 10th June 2017 with my colleagues Tim Bartlett and Tim Phipps and my old mate Trev.

My Dad, Sir John Mason, was killed by pancreatic cancer three years ago after being the senior partner of the firm for nearly forty years. It is a wickedly insidious form of cancer because the symptoms often don’t present until it’s too late for meaningful treatment. My Dad lived for just fifteen months following the diagnosis and that is far longer than many sufferers. It has the lowest survival rate of all cancers. Although the disease has had some publicity following the deaths of Patrick Swayze, John Hurt and Alan Rickman by it, it still receives very little funding for research. Forty years ago 3% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer lived for five years – that figure is still 3%.

We've all been training for the event since the turn of the year, some harder than others ( and everybody harder than me, I fear ), to give ourselves a fighting chance of getting back to the Olympic velodrome before dawn.

I'm really looking forward to it with two great hopes:

1) We raise lots of money; and

2) London has even less hills than Lincolnshire.