Updates

15th January 2010 - Southampton , England .

Cycle 4 Leukaemia Cycling Club is launched .

To assist in making your cycling training and riding more enjoyable, social and rewarding I have decided to start a Cycling Club so that there is an emphasis on friendly fun in the sun .

A very courageous Cycle 4 Leukaemia Cycling Team made up of 12 mighty men and women will take on this years 17th Double Century Cycle Challenge .

The Double Century is a team event over 202 km , with 12 members per team . Starting and finishing in Swellendam in the Western Cape , the route goes through Suurbraak , Barrydale , Montagu , Cogmanskloof , Ashton and Robertson . Although it is a race , it is more about participation and team spirit but I can assure you 202km on a bike is the cycling equivalent of an ultra-marathon .

10th Oct Newquay - Lands End 42 miles

Last day ... 42 miles to Lands End :-) I think emotions are going to be quite high as 19 days of riding comes to and end and the sun sets on an amazing adventure .

Day 19 ... Job done ! What a great day on the bike with the best cycling team in the world . The sun came out for a truly amazing day :-) . Riding into Lands End was the best feeling and sharing it with the person I shared it with was exactly how I dreamt it would be - thank you x .

I`ll be sad to wake up tomorrow and not have to get on the bike .

... probably a good thing because I just fall off it .

9th Oct Bude - Newquay 44 miles

Day 18 ... done ! The day after a lay day is pure torture . There are so many BIG hills in Cornwall after 40 miles coming into Newquay which nearly finished me off right then and there . I even had to throw up again and sit and take a few minutes with a cup of tea in a cafe` on the beach at Watergate Bay ... then the heavens opened and I got pissed on for the last 30 minutes into Newquay. That`ll teach me to sit and rest :-) .

Staying in a lovely B&B with a really nice owner across the road from a South African night club in Newquay :-) .

I have got the ultimate food now . A burger closely followed by ice-cream then milkshake !!!

8th Oct LAY DAY in Bude 0 miles :-)

Life`s a beach ! What a fantastic day on a real beach ... in England - amazing ! Life can`t get much better than spending a sunny day on an amazing beach with the best company in the world ... ever !!! Then to have a chelsea bun and coke :-) a real cornish pasty for lunch and a burger for dinner ... I`m in heaven ... I`m moving :-) .

I`m well rested and feel so comfortable , the van is now re-stocked and ready for the home straight .

7th Oct Porlock - Bude 65 miles

Day 16 ... done ! Eish ! I`ve never been so wet and so cold for so long in my life - up hill and down dale all day long . I was shaking so violently at times I thought that I`d crash for sure . Funny ... brakes don`t seem to work in the rain at 45 km/h :-) pretty hair raising times and my phone learnt to swim :-) Thank goodness for capt. Ollie , even when times are tough , he`s still a comedian .

We found a lovely B&B right in the middle of Bude , perfect for a lay day in paradise .

6th Oct Avonmouth - Porlock 64 miles

Day 15 ... done ! Ah , what a long day on the bike ... everything hurts . No burgers last night and no porridge this morning ? How is this sex machine suppose to perform on an empty tank ? :-) It is so risky doing what I`m doing - so many people have lost their lives cycling the length of this country - and that got re-affirmed today on a country lane when one of us was nearly run over by a car that came racing around a corner , down this hill , saw us at the last minute so he slammed on his brakes causing him to skid down the road sideways before losing control and crashing head first into a pole closely followed by a grass bank . Thank God we are all still here to tell the tale . God , please bless my team - we are nearly there .

5th Oct Hereford - Avonmouth 58 miles

Day 14 ... done ! Except 1 mother hill , we had a fantastic day on the bike . We stopped for tea and cake near an Abbey , Glen managed to get us evicted from a pub before we even got in the front door for pissing in the bush , Ollie knocked his beer over in the van doing an illegal right turn , we crossed from Wales back into England ... and I found out by text message that I`m now unemployed - what a scream :-) Some people have no balls !!!

But I`m having the time of my life - This is how life is meant to be ! :-)

4th Oct Shrewsbury - Hereford

Day 13 ... done ! What a great day . Welcome Team :-) Today I picked up Glen to ride with me and imported a new van driver Ollie to entertain us . What an enjoyable day on the bike and a total laugh all the way ... except the last hill to the B&B - Hamburger Hill :-) I'm pretty tired now but managed to show Glen that cancer patients are still quite strong . Bring on tomorrow cause we have a massive hill to climb before we decend towards South Gloucestershire .

I think Glen can tow me for 58 miles tomorrow ... but don't tell him .

3rd Oct Lay Day

Thank goodness I`m off today because it poured with rain and blew pommies out of pubs all day :-) !

The van is re-stocked , the diesel tank is full and I had a hair cut all ready to go !

2nd Oct Warrington - Shrewsbury 54 miles

Day 11 ... done ! I decided to ride today because tomorrow is going to be bad weather . Man alive , I think I'm getting better at this riding thing :-) because I had such a nice ride to Shrewsbury today in sunshine for a change and was then welcomed by a lovely lady called Jo at a B&B , Charnwood Guest House which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone . Thank you to Jo for washing all my kit too :-)

1st Oct Lancaster - Warrington 57 miles with a transfusion at Liverpool Hospital

Day 10 ... done ! It was a pretty cool ride towards Preston but then I had a van trip thru Preston cause city's are too dangerous . I'm seeing things that I'd never seen before - ever . Liverpool Hospital is now THE BEST HOSPITAL . What a great place !!! I was met by such cool staff and then presented with an envelope which I initially thought was just a card but was then told that they has taken a collection in the Haematology Lab and inside the envelope was £150 ...

I was speechless !!! No one had ever shown me such generosity - especially considering they had never met me . A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO THE KIND MEN AND WOMAN OF THE HAEMATOLOGY LAB AT ROYAL LIVERPOOL HOSPITAL .

30th Sept Carlisle - Lancaster 67 miles .

Day 9 ... done ! Another day another mile on the Penny Farthing :-) .

29th Sept Sanquhar - Carlisle 61 miles .

Day 8 ... done ! Goodbye Scotland ! Out the Scottish Highlands today and crossed the border into England ... but not before I checked out where you can elope from England , to Scotland to get married in Gretna :-) Are you listening somebody ? I'm sitting in Carlisle hospital now getting 2 bags of platelets , all ready for tomorrow . It's funny because now I can compare hospitals and nurses . So far Inverness is well in the lead - but Carlisle wins the prize for the most trendy looking :-) .

28th Sept Largs - Sanquhar 56 miles .

Day 7 ... done ! Wet ... good if you're in the shower , bad if you're decending tarmac mountains at 50 km/h ( especially with trucks passing within 2 feet of me ) . It starts to get a bit eventful when the potholes fill up with water so that you can't see them too . But despite the rain , it was a pretty good day on the bike . I only began to feel sick about 5 miles from Sanquhar . Mikey my van driver flew home today ;-( sad to see him and his antics go ... especially climbing up onto my van roof with one hand in the pouring rain to "get the shot" - you`re the man .

Day 6 ... done ! Sleep , sleep , sleep ... and more sleep . I slept till 1pm ;-) . Managed to do a bit of shopping to re-stock the van , got it washed , then went for burgers - yeah ! Trust me to pick one hot enough to burn the hair off my feet ... it should have burnt the hair off my legs instead :-) .

26th Sept Tarbet - Largs 54 miles .

Day 5 ... done ! What a great day :-) No wind and a flat road !!! Awesome ride down Loch Lomond , I'd recommend it to anyone :-) I think today is the best leg of the trip . I wish I had someone to share it with on the bike . After being awake all night with diohrrea I never had any toilet trips today or puking sessions :-) you gotta love that ... except Mikey never managed to film the hot chick on her bike today - shooo she was even too quick for Mike "Armstrong" to catch :-) .

25th Sept. Fort William - Tarbet 68 miles .

Day 4 ... done ! I went to check out Ben Nevis today before I started riding - maybe i`ll climb it one day ... but today it`s about the bike . The stomach cramps and now diahorrea as well throwing up are making it pretty uncomfortable going - I kept having to go from toilet to toilet :-) not cool .

24th Sept Inverness - Fort William 65 miles .

Day 3 ... done ! After yesterdays antics I only threw up twice today but managed to get pushed into the bushes by a bus in the pouring rain just outside Fort William . To add insult to injury I couldn't lie down on the tri-bars today because of severe stomach cramps , so I had to contend with riding into the wind , sitting up which is pretty energy sapping . The best part was the ride along Loch Ness which I`d been dreaming about but was blinded by the pain in my stomach so I never saw "the Loch Ness monster" . :-)

23rd Sept Brora - Inverness 57 miles .

Day 2 ... done ! After overdoing it a bit in yesterdays headwinds , I found myself throwing up at 3am and then again 1 minute before getting back on the bike at 10am this morning . Pretty tough day - actually brutal because I`m feeling really sick and I threw up twice more on the road today but I got to stay in an awesome B&B in LochEnd called "Kimcraigan" with a fantastic lady called Kim and had a great visit to Raigmore Hospital for my 1st platelet transfusion and met some great nurses too .

22nd Sept. 2009 John O` Groats - Brora 52 miles .

Day 1 ... done ! Riding into 40 - 50 knot headwinds , at times , makes it pretty tough going - that's where I expended a lot of energy today . I eventually got the van to drive right infront of me because the headwind was so bad - I was even having to pedal down some pretty steep hills in 3rd gear just to make headway but generally a good day on the bike . Not bad for a 1st day ... decending tarmac mountains at 55 km/h In the Scottish Highlands is pretty tricky at the best of times :-)

I raced ICAP Leopard around the Isle of Wight and won ! 64 miles in 6hrs was tough on me in my condition but "no pain , no gain" . A BIG thank you to Mike Slade and his crew for giving me the opportunity .