Fundraising appeal: cycling coast to coast for charity

Every summer when I go up to Newcastle to visit my parents, I like to go on a long bike ride through the Northumbrian countryside. For some years I've been displacing from attempting the daddy of them all: coast to coast, Bowness-on-Solway to Tynemouth, across the Pennines. This will be the longest and hardest bike ride I've ever done, so I thought I ought to do it for charity to make sure I finish and don't cop out halfway! I'll also cycling with a friend, Sam Borin, for the same moral support. :o)

Here are the charities I am supporting:

• Macmillan Cancer Support have been supporting my mother, who has been living with secondary cancer for a couple of years now, and from what I hear they have been doing a sterling job.
• I am supporting Cancer Research UK because we don't just need to help care for people with cancer; we need to learn how to treat and cure it too. I have a 1 in 3 chance (as do you too) of developing cancer, and if I do go down with cancer in twenty years time, I'd like that cancer to be treatable and preferably curable before I get it!
• Finally, I am supporting Alzheimer's Research UK, because as Sir Terry Pratchett has publicised, even though 1 in 3 people over 65 will develop dementia, Alzheimer's research receives a fraction of the funding cancer does (3% at the time Pterry highlighted it).

Please support me, and offer Gift Aid if you're a UK tax payer. If you're outside of the UK, you can donate via PayPal. I appreciate your support and thank you for any donations.