Our Charity - The British Heart Foundation

Hi Guys,

I thought it was about time I told you a few things about the charity we have chosen to support on our cycle ride.

The British Heart Foundation was set up 50 years ago in an attempt to deal with the increasing cases of death caused by heart problems. This meant extra funding for research, diagnosis, treatment, care and prevention of cardiovascular and circulatory disease.

Numbers of cases are now falling slowly, but you will be astonished by the figures.
Heart Disease is the UK's biggest killer, with over 180,000 victims in 2009.
It accounts for 1 in 5 male, and 1 in 8 female deaths including 28% of premature male deaths and 20% of premature female deaths.
The UK suffers 124,000 heart attacks every year.
1.5 million people living in the UK today have suffered a heart attack and 2.7 million people are living with Coronary Heart Disease.
In 2006, 266 million prescriptions were written for heart medication. This amounts to a cost of £510 million per year.
1 in 145 babies are born with Congenital Heart Disease. This is a heart abnormality, some cases are easily treatable but others sadly aren't.

Although the figures are slowly reducing, this is a massive amount of people, and a massive cost to our already overburdened health service too.
The British Heart Foundation is working to educate people on healthier lifestyles to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Anyone who knows me will know how much of an issue this is to me. I am a huge lover of the work Jamie Oliver does in trying to help people eat better food, cook healthier and understand the effect of what we put into our bodies. I'm not saying that unhealthy eating is the cause of heart disease, but looking after your body with your diet is hugely important. It reduces the risk of developing heart disease and can also protect your heart if you do have problems.

The British Heart Foundation's "Mend A Broken Heart" campaign is all about ground breaking research into finding a way to heal the heart once it has been damaged by a heart attack. This is an incredible research programme is something that would change the lives of millions of people around the world. The aim is to have treatment in place in less that 10 years which could allow hearts to "re-grow" the parts of them that have been damaged. That sounds incredible to me.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, my Nan (the one at the start of the ride!) has been fitted with a pacemaker. She has regular checks to make sure it is working properly, at the right speed and that her blood is flowing freely around her body. I am so lucky and grateful that she has been kept alive. Without work being done into researching the causes and the way to prevent and treat heart problems, she wouldn't be here. I feel so strongly about the work of the British Heart Foundation in keeping people alive and helping to avoid future problems. Heart disease has the possibility to affect all of us. It doesn't just affect the old, or the unhealthy. It can be a condition you are born with. If we can help with the work done by the British Heart Foundation by raising as much money as possible we could change lives, improve lives and save lives.

Please visit our justgiving page, if we all do a little individually, then together we could make a big difference.

www.justgiving.com/justgottarideit or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5

For more information, have a look at www.bhf.org.uk it's incredible. I could have written so much more, and I hope that I've done justice to the cause in what I have written.

Thanks for reading.

The Exception To The Rule

Hi Guys,

I wanted to share a small miracle with you all.

On my training ride on Sunday, I was going up a hill with cars parked either side. There was a white van man coming the other way, but instead of trying to run me off the road, or force me to stop and start on the hill, he pulled into a gap and let me through! He even called out "go on mate . . . . . Yeah!" as I went past.

It put a big smile on my face, especially after my last experience with white van men. I enjoyed the encouragement too, so if you see us going past you on our ride to Cornwall, remember to shout kind words and wave at us. We promise to wave back!

www.justgiving.com/justgottarideit or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5

Crazy White Van Men

Hi Guys,

Just a quick post as I've just come in from my training ride today and need to get something out in the open, as it shocked the life out of me.

There I was, riding along, minding my own business, just caught up with another cyclist, when a white van man flying down the road almost clips both me and the guy in front of me. I shout "woahhhhh" and the other guy throws the van a "v" sign. We then catch up with the van after a set of traffic lights and the man in the passengers seat flicks his jumper out of the window in an attempt to knock both of us off our bikes. He only just missed the other guy and was pretty close to hitting me too.
A few choice words were exchanged and I then turned off as thats how my circuit goes.

How stupid can some people be? And how completely unaware of how dangerous it is to purposefully knock someone down. I can't quite believe it.

Anyway, that's enough about that. White Van Men just have no intention of breaking stereotypes do they.

Two and a half weeks to go now, keep sponsoring us if you can.

www.justgiving.com/justgottarideit or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5

Inspiration: Stephen Gately

I am so happy that I got to meet Stephen Gately. He had an energy about him that would just light up a room. He passed away from a rare undiagnosed heart condition in 2009. We ride for the British Heart Foundation to raise money to aid research and treatment for these types of conditions. One of the things I'll be thinking about to help me through the tough times on the way to Cornwall will be Stephen.

Above is the video for the last Boyzone single to feature his vocals. Gave It All Away is a beautiful tribute to a beautiful man. I miss you Stephen, thank you for all the joy and happiness you bought me.

Inspiration: Lance Armstrong

Hi Guys,

Have a watch of this superb Nike advert from a couple of years ago.

Lance Armstrong is a hero of mine, and a massive inspiration to me.

He came back from being diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer to win the 

Tour de France a record 7 times in a row.

It won't surprise anyone that I have been training in Livestrong gear, and will also be wearing it on the ride.

I really wanted to do as much as I can to help as many people as possible. 

All profits from Livestrong clothing and equipment go towards the Lance 

Armstrong Foundation, helping cancer patients.

Cancer affects everyone, both directly and indirectly. We need to do as much as we can to help beat it.

Visit www.livestrong.org for further information.

Route Planning

Hi Guys,

I wanted to share this with you as it's probably the coolest thing I have ever seen.

After my training ride with my good mate David today, we mapped our route onto mapmyrun.com, and found a fantastic function linking it to google earth, giving you a 3D flyover of what you have just done.

It was so impressive that I decided to do it for the route to Cornwall. 

The video below is the route for the last day, from a place called Tintagel to my Nan's house in St.Day. If you've got a few minutes to spare have a look, I think it's pretty amazing.

Thanks for all the sponsorship, we've less than a month to go so please do visit www.justgiving.com if you haven't yet.

And then there were 4 - Sad News

Hi Guys,

It is with great regret and sadness that I have to announce that Chris has been forced to pull out of the cycle ride. Unfortunately he has been booked into anti-natal classes at the same time and has been unable to move them.

I would like to say a huge thanks to Chris for helping to get this cycle ride in motion, and ironically for setting the dates with me. Thanks also for the brilliant advice and help you've given me, you will be riding with us in spirit and although we will be a poorer team without you, we will be better off with the knowledge you've passed down.

If anyone has sponsored us specifically for Chris and would like to have their money back then let me know.

Once again, a huge thanks to Chris. I am gutted you wont be there mate, but bring on 2012.

www.justgiving.com/justgottarideit or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5

Time to Rant - Episode 2

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to episode 2 of my occasional but ongoing series about things I am having to deal with, but could do without, during my training for the ride to Cornwall.

This post could easily have been dedicated to the man (I say man, that wasn't the word I used at the time) driving a blue mercedes who almost killed me this week in Balham. I decided against that though, as the thought of it makes me very angry, and I would rather this stays a little lighter than that!

• Other Cyclists

Now when I say other cyclists, I am not meaning the vast majority of cyclists who know how to ride properly and safely. I am talking about the ones who give the rest of us a bad name.
Unfortunately there is a common perception of cyclists being a menace on the roads. Of course I have witnessed people flying out into the roads, dodging traffic, not signaling, riding on pavements, not having any lights, talking on their phones and weaving all over the place, not paying attention to traffic lights across junctions and the craziest thing of all, riding without a helmet. I don't want to seem naive, but I genuinely believe that this is a minority of people. If you happen to be one of these cyclists, please understand that a lot of the rage directed at the rest of us happens because of you. It creates a horrible and unsafe atmosphere, and accidents are caused because we don't have enough respect as road users.

There are however, a few other things that cause me a certain amount of annoyance on a day to day basis, that are done by cyclists who ride in a perfectly safe way, they just seem to get on my nerves.

Firstly I would like other cyclists to smile a bit more. I've already mentioned in the post about my yellow jacket story that people seem to be unwilling to engage with anyone else when they stop at traffic lights and junctions. I asked a guy on a bike the other day which exit he was taking off a roundabout, as I was going to sit the correct side of him and make life easier as we pulled away, but I got back nothing!
I think that this is probably a London thing, as anytime I have cycled anywhere else everyone is lovely and smiley. Lighten up London.

I also have a problem with people who I've overtaken, pulling up to a set of lights where I've been held up, and sitting in front of me. It just wastes everybody's time! I am clearly faster than you, especially on the Boardman, and it must end up being a constant dent in your confidence to keep on being overtaken.

I cannot stand anyone cycling on a Boris Bike, they are so heavy and slow that the cycle lanes get clogged up. I also think that Boris Bikes should automatically come with a helmet, it seems crazy to me that people chug around the centre of London on these things without any sort of protection. The roads are not a safe place, and your head needs protecting.

Lastly, I would like to come out of work and find my bike in the position I left it in. More often than not it has been knocked over and is hanging all askew by it's lock. I manage to get it in the cycle rack without disturbing anyone else's bike, so why can't other people do the same?

I think that is enough venting for now as I can feel myself tensing up!

I'll be back in a few days with an update on the rest of the team. At the moment I am the only member of the team with a fully working suitable bike, but I will elaborate on that in the next post!

Keep sponsoring us, we have had an amazing amount of support in the last couple of weeks. It really inspires the training, so a massive thankyou to all of you.

www.justgiving.com or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5

HairyHand T-Shirt

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to share with you the t-shirts that we will be wearing on the ride.

They were designed by my cousin Scott, who has his own design company called HairyHand.
I think he has done a fantastic job, and I am so grateful to him for lending his considerable talent to us.

Also I wanted to point you all in the direction of his website www.hairyhand.co.uk and maybe there is something he could do for you.

Anyway, thanks again matey. I love them and you are a legend.