I’m cycling the 104 miles of the Devon C2C route from Ilfracombe to Plymouth over the weekend of 10 and 11 September 2011, and while doing so I’m hoping to raise some money for Myeloma UK.
Myeloma is a terminal cancer of the bone marrow plasma cells. While there is no cure (yet) treatment has progressed in leaps and bounds. So much so that over one third of people living with myeloma will survive for more than five years.
Myeloma is often detected quite late when speed of applying treatment can be crucial to those living with it.
Now in all of this, I have the easy part, while you have the hard part:
All I need to do is cycle up and down a few (hundred?) of Devon’s finest hills, whilst my rear end is suffering more and more.
Your task is far more serious – you must rally support so that together we can raise as much money for life-saving research as is possible!
In due course I will post updates here, including a route map. When I finally set off, I will be tweeting over the two days to keep you updated with my progress.
My journey will be entirely unsupported. This means I will be cycling alone, without any backup and without any support vehicle. I will be carrying everything I need with me on my bike. (I’ve always felt that doing a journey like this with a support vehicle is cheating!)
Of course, this adds a few practical challenges: for starters, Ilfracombe doesn’t have a train station, so I’ll be taking a train from Plymouth to Barnstaple. Once in Barnstaple, I will need to cycle to Ilfracombe, so I can start at the “proper” starting point, before turning around and cycling back to Barnstaple (and on to Plymouth).
Now the train arrives in Barnstaple fairly late, which means I have a late start already and I expect Day 1 to be rather interesting as a result. Doubly so, given how much climbing I’d have to do!
Yet life without a few difficulties would be boring, wouldn’t it?
So, what happens now? Well, in my ideal world, you will immediately hurry along to my JustGiving page, which may be found here: http://www.justgiving.com/williamc2c/. Once on that page, you’d donate thousands of Pounds (I did say in my ideal world, didn’t I?) but I suppose in Reality I’d let you off with a slightly smaller donation.
Seriously though, your donation can actually save human lives, so PLEASE give generously? Also, please get everybody you know to make a donation, too, and while you’re there, please “Like” my page on Facebook?
Thanks for helping!