I'm cycling the distance (874 miles) from Lands End to John O'Groats to raise money for local sight loss charity Berkshire Vision, who have supported me with with my sight loss and provide a wide range of activities and adapted sports that I attend.

I'll start on 8th May and cycle the route over 10 - 12 consecutive days days on my exercise bike, using a cycling app that uses real-time routes.

I was diagnosed with severe visual impairment during early 2020 due to complications with diabetes. I woke up one morning and was struggling to see in both eyes, I went to eye casualty where they said I had diabetes of a long standing nature. My retina was detached in one eye and other eye was damaged, the prognosis was "We’ll be lucky to save any sight."

I was at home depressed, confused, scared, and then a certain lockdown appeared during my continued treatment. In November 2020 I got my official diagnosis of severely sight impaired.

People ask me what’s it like, how do you cope? Well honestly, on your own you don’t. Having a visual impairment regardless of it’s severity takes away independence, confidence, self esteem and hope. That’s why charities like Berkshire Vision are so important to people like myself and the thousands of others in the country. They offer that extra level of support that can help restore all of the above mentioned feelings, from activities to social events and helping provide information about the effects of sight loss and support available.

I never realised how reliant charities are on donations, so always being a keen cyclist and having brought an indoor trainer during one of the lockdowns, I thought I could do a charity ride and why not the distance of Lands End to John O'Groats. So confidence restored, self esteem reasonable and HOPE in abundance, let’s see how much WE can raise so Berkshire Vision can provide even more support to the visually impaired and help a significant number of people not just survive but Thrive!