Thank you, 578 times

Fund raising for Epilepsy Action

Thank You!

With a week to go until Adrian’s Ride London Surrey 100 challenge, our target of raising £500 for EpilepsyAction has been smashed, thanks to you. 

Some of you are family, some of you friends who live nearby, some of you we have know for years and some of you we might never meet because we live thousands of miles away, but thank you all. We are over the moon and when you add in the UK Gift Aid contribution the total raised of £578.78 becomes almost £650.

This was a real boost as it’s been a tough week for us that started with a swollen foot for me, following a nasty sting. The beastie left it’s weapon concealed in the liner of my gardening boot, so I never found out what type of sting it was, but it was bad enough to make wearing shoes difficult and wearing tight cycling shoes impossible. 

Last Sunday should have been my big summer challenge, cycling the Rapha Women’s 100, a 100 kilometres in a day on the bike, but temperatures of over 34 degrees that left the road surface melted and my swollen foot, meant a change of plan. We thought an early evening, gentle 25kms would be OK, until my bike had other ideas and my back wheel popped a spoke. We taped it up and bravely carried on, but soon discovered that just one spoke out is enough to make a wobbly wheel that rubs and catches on the frame. After 6.5kms we limped home and my Rapha Women’s 100 became a disappointing 13km.

My bed for the day

My painkillers

If this wasn’t enough, last Wednesday I experienced my first taste of hospital à la Française. It was a routine gynaecology procedure, in and out in a day, but still rather uncomfortable and I’ve spent a lot of my time in an armchair, surrounded by boxes of painkillers that have done a good job of keeping my mind off my bruises. The team of doctors and nurses at the hospital in Niort were fun, friendly and efficient and I’m grateful to them all. Tomorrow my stitches are coming out and then it's onwards and upwards, but no cycling for a week or so yet.

Cycling at sunrise

Adrian has clocked up over 430kms in training rides in just over a week, despite the weather being a big challenge. Three rides, including a 120km final push, had to be very early morning starts as temperatures soared to 38 degrees and one ride had to be aborted after a few kilometres when rain reduced visibility to zero. He has now serviced his bike and given it a clean and a polish, so it’s all ready for next week in London. We will be signing in on Saturday and on Sunday morning after waving him off, I’ll be spending my day volunteering in Piccadilly with the Epilepsy Action team where I’ll be helping to set up the venue for the finish celebration and looking forward to welcoming in the riders. Until then I’m taking it easy, but no one told the courgettes that.

A couple of days of pickings

Reaching the fundraising target certainly gave Adrian the encouragement needed to keep the training up this week as it all had to be fitted in around my hospital trip, and with me out of action Ed and Adrian have also found themselves performing odd tasks, like hanging out washing, ironing, cooking, floor sweeping and spiralising courgettes.

A healthy spiralled courgette salad

The Just Giving page is still open, so if you would like to donate please see here. You can read my story about living with epilepsy here.