The reason I am going to be doing a series of charity bike rides is because I have been the recipient of some wonderful help over the last couple of years from some brilliant charities out there.

Some of you may know that in January 2019 I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I went through several stages of treatment. This included initial chemo-radiotherapy treatment followed by an operation to remove the tumour in August 2019. In October I started further chemotherapy but this set off a stroke and diabetes. It looked like the cancer was beaten as I overcame the stroke and diabetes. Unfortunately for me the cancer has escaped and got into my lungs and liver. This is terminal – but I hope it will take some considerable time to get to that stage. I am now going through further chemotherapy in the hope of a miracle cure from it.

Getting to the point - I asked for help through the Veterans Gateway and was assigned a SSAFA case worker. This man has worked wonders for me and secured funding from the RAF Benevolent Fund (RAFBF) for a special bed, some household equipment to make mobility easier. More recently they have provided me with an e-bike and soon a wheelchair for my bad days.

Over the last few years I was lucky enough to also become one of the Help for Heroes (H4H) Band of Brothers due to my injuries during service in the RAF. This has included gym work, a physio and hydro therapy. I started to volunteer for them just before my cancer diagnosis but still managed to help others who were struggling by befriending them.

In the next few months I will be looking for monthly sponsorship to try and complete 100 miles a month on my bicycles to make a donation to each of the above three charities. Each month will be a different charity in the following order: SSAFA, RAFBF and then H4H.

I would really appreciate it if you could donate to my charities via my links that will be published to you via Wing. My target is £100 per charity and my aim is to do 100 miles to raise that £100. It can be 10p or it can be £1 (or maybe more?) but please consider that these charities have all struggled with fund raising over the last year due to Covid.

If anyone wants to join me on a ride then please let me know. Most will be around 10 miles and most will be local to Paignton.