My father-in-law Taisto recently passed away after a period of suffering with Alzheimer's. One common interest we shared was cycling, and when he was younger he used to regularly ride across Finland with his friends, camping out and enjoying the wild landscape, decades before the term 'bikepacking' had been dreamt of.

We are holding his funeral at the end of June, and I thought it would be an interesting to challenge to go to Finland early, and ride the 500km from Helsinki to Kaustinen, a suitable testament to Taisto. It will be 7 days unsupported, carrying all the equipment I might need for camping wild, or in a campsite. Not sure if I need the bear spray yet!

Dementia will affect 1 in 3 people, and it is the UK's biggest killer, and I am increasingly seeing this amongst relatives of friends. So this seems like a great opportunity to raise some funds for a very important cause so that we may hopefully one day find a cure.

You can find like to my social channels and some other info on my blog page here: https://benjaminwatts.design/charity-ride-across-finland