In the Beginning

This is my first ever blog entry in my first ever blog.  I haven't seen the reason before now and still not sure.  However the next three months have the potential to an exciting time for me as I undertake the most difficult physical challenge I have attempted to date.

This is not climbing Everest, swimming the Channel, yomping to the North Pole or running the Marathon des Sables.  However, it is for me pretty exciting, especially as I have now hit my mid-50s.  Last autumn, a couple of weeks after I completed the Coast2Coast cycle route with my good friend Alan Mayo, I signed up to take part in the Transaid Cycle Zambia Challenge - travelling 500km (300 miles) from the capital, Lusaka, to the Victoria Falls, right on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border.

I had heard about Transaid at the Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) and had thought about a couple of their UK events but not managed to get a place.  One of my old friends, Neil Ashworth, then did the Transaid London to Paris ride which perked my interest further.  I then saw a video of the 2017 South Africa challenge which raised over £250,000 for Transaid's programmes and I got really interested.

At the same time, my work had started taking me to Africa and I was invited to speak at a couple of African Healthcare conferences, one in London and the other in Johannesburg.  Having heard a lot more about healthcare in Africa from people who work in it, and understanding a bit more about the issues with access to healthcare, particularly in remote areas, I started to wonder how I could contribute.

I then learned that the 2018 Transaid Challenge was to Zambia and there was still a place left.  I discussed it briefly with my wife, Sue, who thought I was mad, but went ahead and took the plunge, paying the deposit which secured me a place.  I wasn't really too sure what I had let myself into (and still not really sure), but it was something I thought would be a great challenge and would really motivate me to get fit and most importantly would contribute to healthcare for people who really need it.

So here we are in early June 2018. Three and a bit months to go to departure and training now well underway.  In my next blog posts, I will say a bit more about the Transaid charity, the Cycle Zambia 2018 Challenge, my recent return to Johannesburg to speak again at Africa Health, my training and of course my very generous personal and corporate sponsors.

In the meantime, if you would like to find out more about the work that Transaid do in Africa, please click here

If you like to find out about the Cycle Zambia Challenge 2018, click here

To keep up to date with my fundraising progress and to make a donation, please click here