A LONDON hospital is hosting a cycle relay team who are riding 380 miles between the UK’s leading neuromuscular centres to raise money for charity.
The Duchenne Research Relay is a three-day ride from 12-14 August organised by the parents of an 11-year-old boy with a Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Great Ormond Street Hospital will host a team that are fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK (MDUK), a charity for people living with muscle-wasting conditions in the UK.
Sue and Sam Taylor from Cumbria who are the organisers of the event have a son, Will who was diagnosed with a Duchenne muscular dystrophy when he was four years old.
The Duchenne Research Relay is the latest fundraising challenge by Sam Taylor and his team of around 17 which has already raised over £100,000 for MDUK.
Sam said: “We are very grateful to Great Ormond Street Hospital for welcoming the team. It is a huge, huge challenge in anyone’s book.
“But it is very achievable in a group, with everyone on road bikes. It would be very difficult on mountain bikes. We should have the wind behind us this time!”
The cycle will be Covid safe as they will travel in teams of six during 12–13-hour days.
The first day of the journey they will leave from Great Ormond Street Hospital to the MDUK Neuromuscular Centre at Oxford University and onto Bromsgrove.
On Day 2 they will cycle 131 miles from Bromsgrove to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool and onto Preston.
Their final will see them cycle from Preston finishing at the Centre for Life in Newcastle, cycling 123 miles, and climbing 2500 metres.
MDUK Regional Development Manager for the North of England and East Midlands, Susanne Driffield said: “These are gruelling events which require immense planning and training. Their efforts are reflected in the unbelievable amount their supporters have donated to MDUK.”
In 2015 the family did their first bike ride, cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End in the ‘End to End ride’, raising over £25,000.
You can support the The Duchenne Research Rally here
