On Monday 17th September, 2012 Simon Benson is commencing handcycling from John O'Groats to Lands End - a staggering feat on a normal bike - let alone by hand! Simon, who is a wheelchair user, will be joined by a group of close friends on conventional bikes. Their aim, through Bike 4 Cancer, is to raise significant funds for Kamran's Ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.
For the latest updates from Simon, please see the End to End Facebook page
In Simon's own words...
On 16 October 2010 my eldest son, Jacob, lost his battle with leukaemia. He was 12, only 6 months before becoming a teenager - one of his biggest dreams.. He'd been fighting the disease for over 4 years and was treated on Kamran's Ward at The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Jacob's mum, sister, brother and I are trying to cope; some days are good but many are not.
My friend, Andy Goodwin, suggested last year, as something to focus on, that we cycled from John O'Groats to Lands End for charity (he's done it before). Somewhat reluctantly I agreed to give it a go and borrowed another friend's handbike to get some miles in and found I really enjoyed it, for lots of different reasons. As the year progressed many things happened; quite quickly I felt this challenge was a fitting way to remember Jacob and an opportunity to raise lots of money for these two essential charities. I bought a new bike and kit, got on with training and a number of other close old mates said that they wanted do it as well. So the current party includes - Andy Goodwin, me, Chris Wortt, Jon Sharp, Paul Homersham and Ben Jarvis with support from Chris Benson, Trevor Wortt, Lynnette Homersham and Richard Groome. It's fantastic to have such committed friends and family involved and fully behind remembering Jacob, achieving our challenge and raising money.
We're all starting from various fitness and ability levels but all improving quite nicely and as we move into spring our training rides are more outdoors now with a few indoor sessions. I'm personally up to about 150 miles per week.
Another element to this challenge is that, as previously mentioned, I'm doing this ride on a handbike, as I'm a wheelchair user and the other participants are able bodied cyclists. My handcycle is much heavier than a conventional bike - this is most noticeable when cycling uphill where my pace is slower. In short, my arms and shoulders take much more of a pounding in comparison with my team mates' much bigger and stronger legs.
