Patrick is back on his bike for St Catherine’s Hospice (Crawley)
Patrick McIntosh is raising money for St Catherine’s Hospice (Crawley)
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Thank you for visiting our JustGiving page.
We're raising funds for St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley, a local charity with a powerful mission: to ensure that no one faces death and loss alone.
To support this cause, our great friend Patrick McIntosh is taking on an extraordinary challenge—cycling 1,400 km from Vancouver to Calgary. Starting on the 25th May and over the course of three weeks, Patrick will climb more than 48,000 feet through the Canadian Rockies.
You can view the route and Patricks Progress at this link here.
Our goal is to raise £20,000 through public donations.
£2.50 for every £1 raised!
If we hit this target, additional sponsorship will contribute £2.50 for every £1 raised, potentially bringing our total to an incredible £50,000. Every pound you donate has the power to go even further.
St Catherine’s Hospice depends on donations to provide pioneering end-of-life care and support to individuals and families across Sussex and East Surrey. Your contribution will directly help people facing terminal illness. The hospice has never needed your support more—together, we can make a vital difference.
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About Patrick
Patrick McIntosh is 70 years old and a three-time cancer survivor. His past fundraising feats include cycling from Twickenham to Tokyo for the Rugby World Cup and a solo expedition to the South Pole. Patrick’s determination, resilience, and spirit are truly inspiring—and we hope you’ll join us in supporting him on this incredible journey from Vancouver to Calgary.
You can read more at msn.com
Patrick is also doing an interview for Radio Surrey on Sunday 25th from Vancouver at 8.10am.
24th May
Patrick has now arrived in Vancouver and preparing for his 1400km cycle ride from Vancouver to Calgary.
Day 1
Patrick has complete the first stage of ride by taking a short but inspiring cycle around Stanley Park and then a further 64.2 miles to Abbotsford. View where he is on the map link here.
Day 2
After 70 miles, Patrick has successfully completed day two Abbotsford to Hope. He is now at the foothills of the Rockies, so the going gets tougher from tomorrow. Map link here.
Day 3
Climbing 5,500ft, 45 miles and after 5 hours, Patrick has successfully completed day three from Hope to Manning Park.
Hit an issue when he came across part of the trail which had washed away due to flash flooding last winter, but he managed to find a way around it.
Day 4
Eastgate to Keremeos.
It has been a tough day with 33 degrees heat and a huge headwind. But I have cycled 86 miles through some amazing scenes and am now at the end of this day amongst the beautiful mountains and vineyards.
Take a look at the images in the gallery and visit the map link here which shows my progress and images of the ride.
Day 5
Keremeos to Osoyoos
A really tough day of two halves. The first part of the day was vertical up climbing a gravel path 2670ft and 17km. Some parts were 1 in 20 and the weather was very cold and wet.
After stopping for a short rest at Oliver, we then cycled through a beautiful valley along a disused railway track.
So now at Osoyoos and ready for a well earned day off tomorrow.
See for yourself where Patrick is along his route by visiting our Google Map link here.
Day 6
A well earned day off to recharge the batteries.
Day 7
Osoyoos to Greenwood. A day of extremes today. We were up at 5am to get ready to hit the road, we climbed 4000ft and then straight down again. Went to a fascinating place called Rock Creek, where I was expecting Clint Eastwood to ride by smoking a cheroot. We are now in Greenwood staying at a very basic motel. Thank you to everyone for your amazing support. I hope you enjoy the images we are saving to the gallery.
Day 8
Greenwood to Christina Lake A lovely ride through some wonderful countryside, mostly riding on a disused railway track. The weather has been warm, but not too warm, which has been good for cycling. Tonight we are staying at the Lake View Hotel at Christina Lake.
See for yourself where Patrick is along his route by visiting our Google Map link here.
Day 9
Christina Lake to Castlegar A climb of 4000ft and all gravel paths today, whilst taking care to look out for the bears. Amazing views. Thanks again to everyone for all your support.
Day 10
Castlegar to Balfour. 80km / 55miles today. It has been the most perfect day, the weather was amazing, cycling incredible and the views of the lake and the countryside were magical.
Day 11
Balfour to Creston. 90km today and a beautiful, glorious day. Even saw a Black Bear. I have a day off tomorrow, so see you in two days.
Day 13
Creston to Cranbrook.
Today we started our detour due to the G7. This bike ride was one of exceptional extremes. I will see from the photograph of the navigation. 5000 feet climbed over 60 miles, all on gravel some walking involved, recycled through snow, we were on our bikes for seven hours we met three grizzly bears, a mum and two very large cubs, but we didn’t have time to photograph before they evaporated into the woods, the time has gone forward one hour into mountain time. We are absolutely exhausted and totally exhilarated at the same time.
Day 14
Cranbrook to Fernie
It’s been a long hot day 14 and wonderful day of amazing riding for almost 8 hours we left at 8:30 and arrived in Fernie at 7:30! You can see from the distance in the terrain how amazing the whole experience has been. We’ve met some wonderful people on the way Indeed some Dutch and some Canadians have made donations to the charity which is quite extraordinary. We met a herd of elk foxes on the road, dear everywhere but no bears today.
Day 15
We’ve made it into Alberta and arrived at Blairmore. As you will see from the pictures the air quality is not good and at some point of the day the views were a obliterated. We saw some wonderful butterflies we got completely misled by the trans Canadian trial which after Fernie completely fell apart so we spent a long time on the highway which was unbelievably boring. The sad thing about Canada is they simply don’t get the correlation between consuming vast amounts of carbon and the pollution it’s creating for them and the destruction of the planet that is evolving!
Day 16
Blairmore to Longview
We’ve arrived up a long cowboy trail in Longview which I promise you is a one horse town and we’re staying in the saloon. We’re the only guests and I’m expecting a shoot out later this evening! You couldn’t get closer to being on the set of a western movie. Below the beautiful scenery of billions of gallons of oil and gas which are being extracted all over the place. I couldn’t help feeling very sad that I couldn’t see herds of bison wandering across the prairies. It’s been baking hot and a very long day, but all is well and only a few days to go to the end.
Day 17
Longview to Priddis
Can you believe it wandering across the prairies in the middle of the Rockies come to Black black diamond small town with a wonderful coffee shop and the girl shares my birthday so I get free coffee and a sticky bun. How wonderful is that?
Day 18
Priddis to Canmore
A day of 2 halves our 2nd to last day we started out in beautiful countryside on a cool but sunny day and slowly the smoke came in the atmosphere deteriorated and it became pretty depressing. You can see from the photographs and the videos that I’ve taken what it’s like here It’s not great to cycle through but we did almost 80 miles and average 15 miles an hour which is not bad. You can just about see the famous. Yamnuska climbing mountain, i’ve taken a picture from my bedroom window of the hotel on the other side of the road and what should be Rocky Mountains behind but you’ll be hard pressed to see anything. We’re hoping for a big thunderstorm this evening and that the rain might clear the air I’ll let you know in the morning.
Day 19
Canmore to Lake Louise
the last of this trip has been quite the most enjoyable bike ride full of exciting bears both black and brown, deer, mountain sheep, flora, surprisingly good weather. As we conclude the ride we have covered 1017 miles or 1627 km, risen 51,225 feet or 15,613 m equivalent to climbing Everest almost twice! Apart from one exploded tyre and a 4 km walk everything else has worked out and we’ve even managed to work our way round the G7 meeting.