Fundraising appeal: cycling coast to coast for charity

[lethargic_man]

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.

Comments

want to support you

[michaelkoplow]

Michael, I want to support both you and these causes. My father died of cancer, my mother of Alzheimer's (they'd be excellent causes even if this weren't the case, but they have emotional resonance for me). Unfortch, my credit cards are all in $US. There's probably some way of donating that's too complicated for my poppy seed of a brain. So instead I'm donating to the Alzheimer's Association here in the US in your honor. Or honour.

Re: want to support you

[lethargic_man]

If it's not too late, you can donate via PayPal at the site.