A few of you may be aware that I’m partial to the odd bike ride now and again. I will be taking part in three big cycling events throughout 2022 to help raise funds for our amazing daughter, Isabelle. 

First up is Ride London-Essex 100 on Sunday 29th May. The 100 mile closed road challenge starts from Victoria Embankment and heads into Essex via the historic Epping Forest, before looping back to finish on Tower Bridge.

My second event will be the Dragon Ride on Sunday 19th June, renowned as the toughest cycling sportive in the UK. The 300km route starts at Margam Park near Port Talbot and features some of the hardest climbs in the Brecon Beacons, with 4614 metres of elevation.

And finally, but by no means least, I will be taking part in the L’Etape du Tour de France on Sunday 10th July. This world famous challenge will cover the same course as Stage 12 of the Tour de France, stretching for 170km from Briançon to Alpe d’Huez for a total altitude gain of 4700 metres (over half the height of Mount Everest).

You may ask, why am I raising funds for Epilepsy Research UK? Isabelle is currently 2 1/2 years old and has been diagnosed with an extremely rare mutation of her DNM1 gene, which is the cause of her drug resistant epilepsy. Due to advancements in genetics, this gene mutation has been found fairly recently and is therefore relatively unknown (there has been a study compiled with only 20 children worldwide). The gene DNM1 controls a process called endocytosis, which is essential for normal brain communication. If this process is affected, it then results in sometimes severe seizure activity for Isabelle and has resulted in us knowing the lovely staff on the Children‘s Ward of our local hospital extremely well. There is some fantastic research going on focusing on how to boost endocytosis, which could limit or eliminate seizures entirely – potentially creating new drugs for hard to treat epilepsies, however this is very early days. 

Due to the gene mutation, Isabelle also suffers from severe hypotonia (low muscle tone). At 2 years old, she is unable to hold her head or sit unaided, and hopefully getting more control of her epilepsy will enable us to work on her core strength with specialist physiotherapy.

I will be extremely grateful for any amount donated and if you can share to spread the word on the amazing work Epilepsy Research UK do. Epilepsy Research UK is the only UK charity exclusively dedicated to driving and enabling life changing, life saving research into epilepsy. A life free from epilepsy is possible. But only through research.

Thank you so much for your support and look forward to updating you with my training and pictures of my rides.

Iain x