Five years ago Joanna and I successfully completed an epic Land's End to John O' Groats cycle and raised more than £10,000 for Save the Children. We wanted to challenge ourselves again, as part of the One More City team, last year cycling from Pisa to Nice, and this year Nice to Montpellier 600km with 9000m climbing including the infamous Mont Ventoux climb which the pros will tackle on this years 'Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift'. This will be my sixth One More City and the second for Joanna.

Our friend, Christine O’Connell, who was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 2013, created One More City in 2017 when she and three friends rode from London to Paris in 24 hours to raise money for breast cancer support services. As she was training for One More City’s second fundraiser in 2018, Christine learned that her cancer had returned, and it had spread to her brain and bones. This is when her journey as a secondary breast cancer patient and advocate began. In the years since, Christine and her fellow One More City riders have led eight rides through seven countries. Joanna and I have both had health challenges over the last few months/ years - but nothing in comparison to what Christine endures on a daily basis.

Secondary breast cancer is cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body. Despite the best treatments available for primary breast cancer, an estimated 20-30% of women and men, will develop secondary disease, which is no longer curable. The One More City campaign has generously raised funds to support three research positions at the ICR. investigating treatment resistance in triple-negative breast cancer and advanced cancer.

While new treatments are enabling more people to live longer with this disease, more research is needed to improve the outlook for all secondary breast cancer patients. This is why we are riding and why your support will make such a difference.

The ethos of One More City is that the journey is never over; we are always progressing towards the next city, there are always more kilometres to do, more climbs to conquer and more challenges to face. This is akin to the reality of anyone living with cancer, especially secondary cancer, for whom the challenge is never over; there are always more treatments to endure, more scans to face, more side effects to manage.