Thank you for taking a look at my charity event. I am raising money for the Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance as well as the British Heart Foundation.

Roughly one year ago I suffered a heart attack whilst out trail riding on my motorcycle with friends. Had I gone into Cardiac Arrest, the only way my life could have been saved was for the Air Ambulance to attend due to my very remote location.

Following the heart attack, I required quadruple bypass surgery on my heart up at St George's Hospital. I have to say it wasn't much fun, but this stuff makes us stronger hey.

After following the rehab advice I started walking for 5 minutes a day (more like hobbling in a lot of pain), this increased and increased as I got stronger and fitter and my wounds healed allowing me to eventually get back to work (who were utterly fantastic - thank you Gatwick, you are amazing).

I still had a lot of healing to do and had a lot of physiotherapy at Crawley Hospital, but this kickstarted something in me, I wanted to be better, be fitter, be stronger... and hopefully never have a heart attack or the rather nasty surgery again.

So I got an ebike, and I started riding the 5 miles to work and back, then I got fitter, so utilised the Ride To Work scheme and got myself an eMTB... and took part in some MTB events... even came first in the first one I took part in, also rode it 50 miles up Box Hill, Ranmore and Leith Hill the hard way and rode it and rode it and racked up the miles and most importantly: the smiles!

So I got fitter still, so I got myself a regular bicycle, which I have since been riding to work on and very much enjoying taking a spin locally on.

So I then wanted more... I wanted to ride further and do so without the ebike assist...

So here we are, with me about to attempt (and SMASH) a distance on a regular bicycle that I have not even attempted on my ebike at time of writing. I am going to ride from my place of work down to the coast and back on my bike. A distance of just under 80 miles on the route I have planned, and I am going to do it in a day.

I will be doing the ride on the 13th May 2026 which is the anniversary of my leaving hospital after the surgery!

I have planned a couple of stops on the way there and back, but removing those breaks, I estimate to be cycling for 8+ hours as there are some big hills on the route.

My backside will be in tatters, that alone is worthy of your donations, but I think the whole achievement is also pretty noteworthy too, so get ya dosh out and donate!

Due to the way Just Giving works, I can't set it up to automatically split the donations, so I have added 2 pages, one for the Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance and another for the British Heart Foundations both within this team page. I'd hugely appreciate it if you split your donations between them equally, but whatever you can do will be most graciously accepted.

Thank you,

Pete, AKA Hippo-Drones.