10 days for 10 years.

Land's End to John O’Groats .... many have cycled it but they all agree it is never easy! And that's the point. We need a challenge that pushes us to our limits of mental and physical suffering. Which will be but a tiny taste of the constant suffering endured by people with spinal cord injuries. Never the same, but our way of showing we care.

Connor, my beautiful brother, is living with a spinal cord injury. This year, it will be 10 years since he broke his neck playing rugby aged 19. From then on we have been by his side as he has battled his life changing injury and have endeavoured to support him in whatever way we can. Words simply cannot express our admiration and pride in him. We will all contribute to this cycling challenge but there are a few key players. Firstly, David, his brother in law, who is building Connor his own house. Over the years he has engineered and created and altered all sorts of gadgets and every type of wheelchair vehicle you can imagine and helped Connor out of all sorts of sticky spots (lets not mention the last bike challenge!) It has been a while since he has been on a bike now but the lycra still fits (just!). Secondly, Drew, a family friend who also finds himself tinkering away with hand bikes and wheelchair brakes. Drew is a more regular cyclist but is really upping the training in preparation for the big event. The final main cyclist is Andy, a cycling pro (pro might be a stretch, but he’s definitely the most professional out of the three!) who has mapped the route, promising to include some big climbs and sorted the extensive kit list. He has done many a welding job for Connor over the years (latterly creating dog crates for his van). Other family and friends will join us along the way for sections of the ride and being part of the support team. Connor himself will be hand cycling part of the route with Jayne his girlfriend, on the tandem bike. Connor's sisters, nieces and nephews will be cycling some miles once the boys reach back up to Scotland!

We want to celebrate the vitality and resilience of Connor over the last 10 years, and our survival as his support network. We will cycle this distance of nearly 1100 miles in 10 days. 10 days for 10 years is our challenge. Please donate if you can and help us to honour and to contribute to this important cause.

Spinal Research is the UK’s leading charity funding medical research around the world to develop effective treatments for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury. Every year 1,000 people in the UK and Ireland are paralysed following an injury to their spinal cord.

We receive no government funding and rely entirely on the support of the public to raise funds for our research. Because of the efforts of our supporters, we have funded innovative medical research that has achieved a number of ground breaking changes in the field.