By Tom Moysey
John Savage and Tom Moysey JOGLE Cycle 2016
John and I will be slipping into our finest lyrca to cycle from John O’Groats to Land’s End between 29th April to 13th May. It will be tough, the weather may be terrible and our lyrca may chafe but it will be a great adventure.
The idea initially started as a bit of an adventure as it’s something that we’ve had in the back of our minds to do for a while and last year John decided now was the time and we started to get the ball rolling (initially by buying bikes as neither of us even had a bike or any cycling gear until the middle of last year!).
In terms of the charity aspect, one of my oldest friends was struck down my ME about a year and a half ago and went from being a PE teacher and avid sportsman to pretty much house bound for over a year. Even now he only feels 45% of his old self but he’s learning to manage the illness as best he can.
He wrote a blog some time ago (link below), which was the inspiration behind our decision to do the ride for Invest in ME as neither John or I were aware that ME research/treatment is so poorly invested in – it’s pretty shocking and unbelievable when you actually hear the facts about it.
We’ve spent many hours doing all the planning ourselves and will thankfully be supported by John’s father in law, who will be following us in a motorhome (which will be our home for the two weeks).
All that’s left now is to get cracking and pray for good weather (seeing snow in Scotland is not the best start to the week of departure!).
We set off on our journey up to John O’Groats on Wednesday 27th April, in preparation to start the long cycle south. Many thanks for the good luck wishes! For any donation, small or large – thank you!
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The article that inspired this event:
Raising awareness and finding a cure. M.E- The hidden illness Blog by John Mackay. Both this blog and the article shown below were published in May 2015.
Article by Tom Ramage in the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald in May 2015 about John Mackay’s fundraising for Invest in ME.