What is this all about?

Last spring, my Girlfriend Nicola was bitten by a Tick on the Isle of Rum, Scotland. At the time we didn't think anything of it. As you can read below in Nicola's Story, our world change a lot that day.

Nicola's story is still ongoing I hope to update how the treatment is going as things change. At the time of writing there is at least another month of treatment still pending, beyond that we have yet to see what will follow.

Lyme disease is an increasingly common infection in the UK, the rate of increase is staggering. The potential consequences of untreated Lyme disease can be severe and lead to a significant loss of quality of life.

We have been lucky, we were informed and were able to see beyond the closed minded NHS specialists. We had the resources to find alternative treatments and we have had each other to get through all of the battles and suffering. Many people are not so lucky.

So we come to the cycle part of this, on May 17th, I am riding 81 miles in Perthshire. The ride is the Etape Caledonia (www.etapecaledonia.co.uk). This is the largest closed road cycle ride/race in the UK. 3000 people will take part from those aiming for sub 4hr race times to those in fancy dress.



I am aiming to complete the ride in under 5hrs and am looking for sponsorship to raise money for Lyme Disease Action (http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/).

LDA are "Striving for prevention and treatment of Lyme Disease and associated tick-borne diseases" which is something that needs attention. They rely on the time and generosity of individuals to raise the funds to lobby parliament, health professionals and advise those suffering with tick born ailments.

My aim is to raise £1000 this year for LDA, the first of my events is the Etape Caledonia where I hope to raise at least £500 for LDA.

This blog will detail the fund raising as it progresses ad my preparation for the ride. The next planned event is July-August, I will ride 4 x 25 mile local charity rides in under 90minutes each. The final event planned will be a climb of the Bealach na Ba, Scotland's very own alpine ascent, I plan to cycle this as a conclusion to the fund raising project.

Thanks to all for taking time to read my words Ill post a link to the fund raising page as soon as it is live. Please give anything to LDA that you can spare, if a lot of people give a little, then we can make a difference. I will try to post about how LDA plan to use the money raised.