As most of you know, my wonderful mum, Simone, passed away on 15th January 2022. We are heartbroken. My dad and I are dedicating this ride to my incomparable mum, whose passion and joy for life had and will continue to have a unique impact on everyone who met her. 

On 3 September 2017 I went to the wedding of some dear friends and my mum and dad were also invited, it happened to be their wedding anniversary. As always, the moment the band started playing after dinner, my mum was one of the first people to hit the dance floor. We were dancing our socks off when mum tripped and had a fall. In the days and weeks that followed her leg did not heal and she started limping and this got increasingly worse. It took a number of months before we convinced mum to go and see her GP and after a series of tests we discovered that mum had Stage 3 multiple Myeloma. Myeloma is often not detected until it is entirely too late to do anything.

Mum underwent reconstructive surgery on her right leg, she embarked on 12 cycles of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in March 2019, resulting in an all too short 3 month remission. Then there was another reconstructive surgery on her right arm, more chemotherapy and all this was exacerbated by mum catching Covid and ending up in hospital and contending with long-Covid symptoms preventing her from restarting chemotherapy treatment. And in all this mum had a constant zest for life and adventure, a passion for showering her family and friends with love, support and dinner parties and a reputation for her tirelessly positive outlook on life. In short mum was a total powerhouse! 

Myeloma UK is dedicated to ensuring that myeloma patients live longer and with the best possible quality of life. It is focused on directing investment into strategic, patient centred research that offers the best chance of significantly improving outcomes for myeloma patients. Myeloma UK receives no core government funding and relies almost entirely on voluntary donations and fundraising events like the London Paris Ride.

• £20 could send the MyelomaUK GP Diagnostic tool to 15 GPs, helping them to spot myeloma sooner
• £60 could provide an hour of free support to a myeloma patient or family member through the Myeloma Infoline
• £125 could help Myeloma UK gather evidence for a drug appraisal to ensure effective treatments like lenalidomide are available on the NHS
• £1,000 could support the development of a clinical trial to give patients early access to new drugs and therapies

Please support this fantastic charity in its invaluable work. I will be cycling from London to Paris with my dad in September - 4 days in the saddle, 500km on the road and no doubt some sore legs and chaffing!

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