This July, we’re doing one last ride.

Over 340kms through southern France, climbing 2,300m over 3 days, all in memory of my amazing mate, Elias Taylor, who we lost in 2018 to leukaemia at just 22.

It’s the final part of a trilogy of bike rides that Elias’s incredible family has organised. Back in 2019, we cycled from Paris to London; then Paris to Poitiers in 2022 - and now, in 2025, we’re going again. This time, from Lyon to Aigues-Mortes (just near Montpelier). I’ll be cycling alongside my girlfriend India, my mum Natalie, my sister Charlotte, and a big group of Elias’s family and friends.

Elias and I were best friends through primary school and did everything we could to stay close through secondary school - playing tennis almost every day throughout the summers. I’ve got multiple memories of him flinging his tennis racket at me when I beat him, always dramatic - and both of us hitting stones into the distance, completely screwing up every racket we ever bought.

We were teenagers, spending Saturday nights trying (and usually failing) to convince girls to come over when our parents were out. We egged each other on, wound each other up, and just got each other. We were so similar in so many ways.

I think about Elias probably every day. I miss him a lot. Every milestone I hit in life - in work, relationships, anything, I always think about what he'd think, how much I wish he was still here, still part of it all. Wondering who he would be with, where he'd be living and what he'd be doing. The kid had it all. The brains, the looks and the charm, the loving family and great friends.

It’s still difficult for me to grasp that he’s gone forever. How unfair that is.

Back in 2019, thanks to everyone’s generosity, we raised £180,000. Then in 2022, we did it again - bringing the grand total to £300,000 raised in Elias’s name. That money has gone directly to the Haematology Cancer Care unit at UCLH, funding a 3-year research project focused on improving CAR-T treatment - the therapy that gave Elias so much hope.

Now, in this final ride, we want to take that total beyond £400,000. Every donation helps fund life-saving research. Every donation brings us closer to a world where fewer people have to go through what Elias and his family did.

Please donate what you can. Share it. Cheer us on. And thank you - for helping us remember Elias the way he deserves to be remembered.