On 17 May last year, at around 4:00am, I received THAT phone call - the phone call we all dread, the phone call we fear but never really think we will ever receive. My dad had died suddenly and out of the blue from a massive heart attack. I had only seen him a few days before, when he told me about his weekend paragliding and running with our family dog Finn, who had come to stay.

As many of you know, Jerry ‘Tex’ Ranger was no joke - a real-life action man - an ex-marine and member of the Special Boat Service who served in the Falklands and Northern Ireland, an engineer and entrepreneur with multiple Queen's Awards to his name, a fierce friend, father, brother and most recently, grandfather. He had just spent the last winter running, ski touring, paragliding, and even sneaked in some heli-skiing - there was absolutely no indication that he was unwell (see photo below, taken in Venice a week before he died)

Sadly, stories like this are not unique. Familial hypercholesterolemia (genetic high cholesterol) needlessly takes thousands of lives a year and could be avoided with medication and awareness. It is not something you can run off, although Jerry did his absolute best to do so.

Since November 2024, I’ve been training for a self-initiated solo challenge in aid of Heart UK, which I’ve dubbed "Palace to Piste" - a 1,207 km bike ride from Buckingham Palace to Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise in the French Alps, from 4-12 August. Over nine days, I’ll tackle approximately 7,680 meters of elevation gain, finishing in the mountain village my dad called home.

In the chaos of our grief, my siblings and I kept turning to Heart UK - looking for answers, understanding, and hope. Their resources were a lifeline in those first overwhelming weeks.

My sister Emma has already smashed the London Marathon this year, raising a jaw-dropping £19,000+ in the process - so now the baton has been handed to me. So here it goes… Any donation toward Heart UK’s mission of preventing early disease and death from cholesterol would be incredible. But honestly, if this post gets just one person to check their heart health or encourages those around them to, it will all be worth it.

While mountain biking is much more my speed, multi-day road cycling is definitely a new and VERY BIG challenge - so as Jerry would so often say: “Just fucking dig deep”… so let’s go get it!!