It's been 4 and a half years since our 1st son, Dexter, died 36 hours after his birth, having been born prematurely. Despite his very early arrival he was showing very good signs of progress before a completely unexpected failure of his lungs turned our life upside down and ended his.

While the wounds for my wife and I are no longer as raw, the scars never heal & we will never forget, nor would we want to. Since Dexter, unfortunately some friends have also gone through the pain of losing a child and this has reinforced in us the need to continue supporting SANDS so that they can continue to help other parents like they helped us.

I've previously run the London marathon for SANDS, raising £7,000 back in 2014 but my attention has changed to cycling now & I figured it's been long enough a break to be able to ask folk to sponsor me again!

So my challenge here is 2 fold. On the 16th July I will (hopefully) achieve a life goal and complete a stage of the Tour de France, riding over some of the most legendary mountain passes of the Alps. In a 178km stage, that takes in a 2,103m high mountain before finishing at the summit of another at 2,306m!

2 weeks later I will then ride the 160km RideLondon event on 30th July which takes in the route of the 2012 London Olympics Road race. This 2nd target has particular resonance as my wife and I stood on Putney bridge, watching Bradley Wiggins & Team GB cycle past us, in that race, whilst she was pregnant with Dexter.

So it's not going to be easy, and now that Dexter's younger brother & sister Milo (3 yrs) & Lola (6 mths) are on the scene, finding the time for training is going to be the toughest part of the lot. So I definitely think all of this effort is worth a small donation from you, yes? Go on, no matter how small, every penny counts.

Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, operates across the UK: supporting anyone affected by the death of a baby; working in partnership with health professionals to ensure that bereaved parents and families receive the best possible care; and promoting improvements in practice and funding research that could help to reduce the loss of babies’ lives. We depend on the amazing energies of our supporters to raise the vital funds that we need to deliver the wide range of services that we offer. #TeamSands