This summer I will be cycling from London to Rome over the
Alps to raise money for Blood Cancer Charities. This is a cause dear to my
heart having battled blood cancer (Double Hit Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma) myself in
2012 and 2013.  

Many friends will be joining me on different parts of the journey and will also be raising money; son Tom Gilboy, Steve Roberts, Ade Rees, Peter Jacobs, John Wyatt, Darrin Shaya, Ian Halliday, Peter Wilkinson, Rudi Geiger, Sven Maerz,  Lars Rabe, Trevor Edwards, Stephan Schambach, Martin Schambach, Phil Tynan, Derek Freel, Laura Wilson, Chris Tirant, Rich Wilson, Linzi Wilson, Steve
Kendall, Martin Smethurst, Maurizio Capobianco, Massimiliano Matacena, Vera
Hartmuth, Jeff Barnett, Ben Walder and Laurent Peron.



Upon admission into hospital the cancer was very advanced;
stage 4B, and had spread throughout my body. 
My Doctor looked at the notes from the scan on his screen and commented
quite calmly with the following words: 
‘Andrew, it’s the worst scan the team have ever seen’. 

I was in a desperate state and days from death; classified as stage 4B; this meant that the cancer had spread throughout my body (‘metastasised’).  My bone marrow was almost completely
cancerous, my right lung was filled with fluid from several tumours, my right
shoulder had a destructive tumour where the bone inserts into the socket which
was tearing several muscles and destroying the top of the arm bone, my liver
had three tumours and was very enlarged as was my spleen which also had a
tumour and one had grown on my spine in between my shoulder blades. Tumours in
my skull had pushed against nerves in my neck, trapping them and the side of my
head had subsequently become numb.  By
then I was on morphine to try and soothe the constant and excruciating pain.
The cancer was spreading and growing so fast that if it couldn’t be halted then
the end of my life would be measured in days and I wouldn’t make my 49th
birthday.  

But medical science, the wonderful professionals of the NHS,
the love of my friends and family and also my fitness due to a long passion for
cycling helped me beat the odds. I wrote a blog about the nine months of
treatment, most of it in an isolation room undergoing intensive chemotherapy,
culminating in a stem cell bone marrow transplant, which you can read here:

http://andrewgilboy.com/. 

Whilst in my isolation room in Royal Berkshire Hospital in
Reading, UK,  I promised myself and my
wife Louisa that, if I survived, I would do an epic bike ride to raise money to
help others beat this terrible illness. 
(The profile photo is of me on an exercise bike in my isolation room as
the treatment started to work!).  I have
chosen Delete Blood Cancer as they are the largest donor register and operate
globally with operations in the USA, UK, Germany and Spain.  People who know my family are also aware that
my older brother Philip sadly died of another blood cancer, Leukemia when we
were children. Our mother Ellen, died aged 43, also of cancer.

So two years on, I will restart the blog and continue
blogging throughout the ride.  As well
you can follow me on twitter here

https://twitter.com/andrewgilboyl2r

and join my Facebook Group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/GillyLondon2RomeBike/

I am getting nervous about the ride as it is a monumental physical challenge.  I could hardly have chosen a more challenging activity and I am not sure whether I can do it.  I will need to average over 75 miles / 120 km a day for a total of 1,350 miles / 2,170 km and I will spend five days cycling over the Alps.  In total the climbing is equivalent to three Mount Everests'. That's a tall order for any 51 year old body, but I also have some long term side effects of the treatment (heart and lung damage) which make it even more of a challenge physically for me.

Please support me anyway you can, I will need it!!  And please donate to this fantastic cause and save a life.      

I start on August 29 in London then cycle through Brighton,
Paris, Auxerre, Geneva, Grenoble, Turin, Genoa, Pisa, Florence then hopefully
into Rome twenty days later.  I will also
be climbing the famous L'Alpe D'Huez in the second week of the ride, the famous
mountain finish at which Chris Froome won this year's Tour de France.

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