In January my 6 year old daughter Sienna was rushed to hospital with stomach pain and then rapidly transferred to Southampton Children’s Hospital for specialist treatment. Soon after she arrived the surgeons diagnosed a bowel intussusception caused by a disease called HSP and prepared her for emergency surgery, luckily the surgery was successful. The HSP and surgery resulted in Sienna spending 12 days in the Children’s High Dependency Unit and unable to walk without assistance for weeks after.

The staff at Southampton Children’s Hospital were amazing, it’s every parents worst nightmare to see your child in pain but they did everything they could to help. The Nurses genuinely cared about the kids they looked after and were so kind to me and Mandy as we stayed with her. It’s not till you spend time in hospital that you see how much work and effort they put into to looking after your children and how important even the little things they provide are (such as a soft toy or stickers to distract them from the constant cannulas and injections).

To raise some money for the upgrade of the children’s wards and facilities I’ve decided to cycle home from my work project in Plymouth. The route will cover 200 miles over the South West of England, climbing over 3000 metres over two days. The first day will start at the Plymouth Naval Memorial, then head 100 miles north through Dartmoor with an over night stop in Weston-Super-Mare. Day two will continue from Weston-Super-Mare up Cheddar Gorge, past Trowbridge and Devizes before getting home to Newbury.

UPDATE:

Thank you everyone for your kind donations, it's amazing the amount of support you have given. Unfortunately I have to delay the ride by a few weeks but now hope to complete it at the end of September (when it's darker, colder and wetter). I'll update with exact timing closer to the event, but thank you again for the support so far.