We will be raising as much money as possible for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. This is a cause close to our hearts as my Mum, Judy, lost her battle with this awful condition in July 2009.
Garfy was one of three mates of mine who last August cycled from John O'Groats to Lands End. Him and Darrin dedicated their ride to and raised over £2,000 in Mum's memory for the MND Association on that occasion. So inspired and overwhelmed was I by this that I bought a bike earlier this year and actually started to remind myself how to ride it in hope of being able to cover the whole length of the Emerald Isle. Having exercised little more than my jaw muscles and drinking arm (Garfy's words) since the eighties, it's been a challenge to say the least.
Still, I've done a 66 mile and a 70 mile ride as part of the training (amongst others) so with any luck I'll still be alive by the time we reach Malin Head!
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Gandhi, Darrin, Tim, Kate and especially Garfy for their support, humour and encouragement throughout the training over recent weeks and months. It can't be easy motivating a morbidly obese man in his late thirties to cycle up big steep hills.
My colleague Nicola and her husband Dave have very kindly offered to do the support driving and we're very grateful to them in advance for carrying our stuff to the next B&B each day. This is very selfless of them, of course, as Ireland is a horrible place and I'm sure they'll hate every moment of seeing pretty well the whole country and drinking all of that dreadful Guinness!
I'd also like to thank my lovely wife P and our boys for allowing me the "time out" to train for and complete this.
Having this event to focus on and prepare for has made an enormous difference to how I've dealt with losing Mum, and hopefully will be the start of lots more activity in future.
Final thanks go to all of those who have been kind enough to donate. As of today we have hit 55% of our target.
For the rest of you, please dig as deep as you can in order to one day prevent other families from going through this. Your support is very much appreciated.
http://justgiving.co.uk/priceyandgarfy
Thanks very much. Enjoy the blog...
(please note that this blog may contain attempts at humour)
