#GOODCAUSE – ST MALO 2 NICE
Planning and riding from St Malo 2 Nice for Bowel Cancer UK and Mind Charities… by Nicholas Christie
Hello UkGravelbike.Club
Not strictly gravel, although my son and I will be riding this on our gravel bikes. I hope you could support and promote our two-week ride from St Malo 2 Nice at the end of July (Covid-19 permitting) We will be raising money for Bowel cancer Uk and Mind charity. We will be unsupported …
My Story
I wanted to do something to raise awareness and raise funds for the Bowel Cancer UK Charity. So I planned, organized, and funded an unsupported ride from John O’Groats to Lands End in 2013, having only started cycling in 2012 at the age of 46. Sadly my mum didn’t get to see me complete the ride. She however gave her support before she died. I need to keep on raising awareness and get people to get themselves checked, as this disease kills over 16,000 in the UK alone. The first ride took 12 days and included a trip to the hospital for me! I had a terribly damaged knee and was told to stop the ride, but I carried on as I could let everyone down. I completed the ride gaining some great publicity and raising over £5000. After a period of recovery, I decided I needed to ride again and did the reverse route in 2015. Again great publicity and this time raising over £8000. This time no trip to the hospital but did suffer with my back during and after the ride. This, I later discovered, was due to having prolapsed two discs in my back. However, I’m not a quitter!! Fast-forward, through a few years of recovery, and my back is generally improved.
I switched to a second-hand recumbent trike and earlier this year cycled from Northern to Southern France (St Malo to Millau ) Again spreading the Bowel Cancer UK message and raising them more money completing over 550 miles in 7 days. Unfortunately riding the trike all this way was too much paid a heavy strain on my knees !! Having sort medical advice in France I had to stop and eventually return home.
So my next Charity ride awaits and I’ll be back on two wheels having made lots of improvement in my back condition so planning a return to France to cycle St Malo 2 Nice with my son this time. Failure is not an option! And I am working hard in training.
My website is here:
www.gravelbikerider.info
My route is here:
https://www.gravelbikerider.info/p/the-routes.html
and the fundraising link is here:
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/StMalo2Nice
