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If you have not come across Crohns and Collitis before, which many people haven’t, it is an inflammation of the gut.  It can affect any part of the gut, all the way from the mouth, through the large intestine to the ………. far end, if you know what I mean!  This horrible disease affects between 1 in 1,000 to 1,500 people, commonly in Europe and North America.

After being out of sport for almost two years after major back surgery, I have been inspired to take part in this sponsored bike ride because the more I have heard about this condition and the more I have learnt about its cruel legacy, the more committed I have become to helping to find a cure for it or to find a way to prevent it occurring at all.  Why do I say cruel legacy?  The man who is the inspiration behind the ride itself is a close friend of mine - Michael Seres - a guy in his mid-forties.   He has suffered from Crohn’s since he was 12.  Since that age, he has endured over twenty operations to remove successively inflamed parts of his bowel.  His most recent operation was to become the eleventh patient in the UK to have a complete bowel transplant.  Michael and his family are truly amazing people - please take a moment to pause and think about the sort of person he must be to ignore his huge discomfort, the series of post-operative infections he has endured and the difficulty of learning to eat again for the first time in nearly two years to arrange a sponsored ride from Paris to London to raise money for research into a disease that has massively affected his life.  Of course, the most compelling part of this for me is that it is too late for Michael to benefit from the research!  All his energy is going into raising money for research that he hopes will help everyone else who is suffering as he has done for over 30 years.  He has none of his own gut left to become inflamed!

So let me tell you what I’m planning to do.

On the 22nd July I will meet up with about 30 other riders at Newhaven to ride the home leg of this sponsored bike ride.  We will ride the best part of 65 miles over the very poorly named “Downs” to arrive in South London.  And I’m doing all this to raise money for research into finding some answers to this horrible disease. 

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