This year, I’m fundraising for Meningitis Now and have been accepted to join their #TeamTangerine to cycle the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, 100-mile route on 4 August 2019.

Why Meningitis Now?  In the early 1990's, my Father-in-Law, Gavin, passed out one morning whilst feeding corn to his pigs which was extremely unlike him.  He got progressively worse throughout the day and was diagnosed as having gastroenteritis by his Doctor and told to get bed-rest to recover.  He got much worse by the following day and started to experience severe pain in his right leg and cried for my Mother-in-Law, Gillian, to fetch the Doctor.  The Doctor visited him and found that Gavin had excruciating pain in his neck – the next stop was the local Hospital.  The following day, Gillian was called into Hospital as Gavin was being particularly disruptive.  He didn’t recognise her and it took four porters to restrain him whilst they prepared him for a lumbar puncture under general anaesthetic as he simply didn’t know what he was doing.  It took the best part of two more days to diagnose Meningitis caused by Streptococcus suis Type II.  It was the first case of this nature in the United Kingdom and related to a pig disease. 

Gavin had a plethora of symptoms but has managed to recover really well despite the early prognosis by the hospital Consultants.   He had to sell all his pigs and is left with partial hearing and chronic joint pain; an earlier diagnosis may have helped to reduce the long-term effects, hence my passion towards fundraising for Meningitis Now. 

Please dig deep for this cracking cause.  I promise to do my very best to achieve this goal and would thank you very much in anticipation of your kind donation.