On September 12th 2018 , my Mother-in-law died suddenly. She was 78. She had for several years been fighting motor neurone disease during which the disease had started to strip away her physical capabilities.

On January 25th 2019, my Dad died. He was 76. He died from dementia after less than 3 years of rapid decline as the disease stripped away everything that made him the great person he was. Our family tried as best as we could to ease his decline in the short time that dementia took hold, helping him in the most caring and respectful ways that we could.

During those years from 2017 - 2019 with both my Mother-in-Law and Father we received help from carers. In the case of my father, the local hospice helped particularly as he reached the end of his life.

My Father and Mother-in-law had great fulfilling lives and despite both of their lives being brought to an end too early by these terrible diseases, neither of them were defined by these diseases.

However Dementia and MND both represent a currently incurable prospect of certain death. The amount of people and families who are impacted by these diseases is unfortunately only growing (dementia is soon going to approach over 1 million people in the UK being impacted). While cures remain on the horizon, care for those who already have these diseases is criminally under funded. Dementia UK supports families facing dementia through their Admiral Nurse Services and Helpline. Admiral Nurses are highly experienced nurses, with specialist knowledge and skills in dementia care and funding is needed to expand the number of them given how much demand for dementia specialist care is increasing.

So, given how these diseases have impacted my family but in the desire to help further families I’m hoping to give a little something back by raising funds for Dementia UK and MND Association charities.

To raise money I will undertake a cycling challenge between May 29th and June 17th, and across 20 days continuously I will cycle "All the Extremes" of mainland Britain.

I will start at Dunnet Head (most Northerly) and then in turn going clockwise visit Lowestoft Ness (most Easterly), Lizard Point (most Southerly) and finish the ride at Ardnamurchan Point (Most Westerly) ... this will involve 20 days consecutively of cycling over 100 miles a day ... 2200 miles in total. While I'm at it I'll 'throw in' a John O'Groats to Lands End as well !!!

I will start the ride at Dunnet Head on Sunday May 29th and finish at Ardnamurchan Lighthouse on Friday 17th June ... hopefully still in one piece!

It’s a difficult time to be asking for money, so please do what you can to support me. Support me by joining and sharing my cause on social media ... or come and join me for a bit of my ride .... or post a picture of a loved one on your social media who has also been impacted by these terrible diseases and share my donation link on your post. Whatever you can do , please show you care by raising awareness, and if you can find some spare pennies or pounds then please donate them here. To donate click on one of the profiles below, one is for DementiaUK the other for MND Association ... when you click on one it tells you the charity it's for.

Updates: Facebook = Facebook link

If you want to join me on a leg and need to know my route , then please just send me a mail to martin.waters@qa.com.

Thank you.

Martin