Starting the next big adventure…

Planning for the future used to look very different to me.  All those things I’d do in five years, or ten years… or even just “some time”.  Then I was told I had lung cancer and suddenly planning anything for next week seemed foolish, and six months from now was incomprehensible.

It got better.  At first it was the old “fake it ’til you make it” routine.  I’d smile and say “That sounds great” when what I meant was “You want to book a holiday? Are you mad?”.  But then the holiday came and went without a disaster. And time moved on, and other plans worked out, and the world didn’t end.

Even still, whenever I look more than a month or two ahead in a calendar I have to ignore the little voice in my head that’s telling me not to tempt the fates.

So when I say that I know where I’ll be at 7:30am on August 25th, 2020 you should know that that’s the furthest in the future that I’ve planned anything for more than eight years… I hope you’ll forgive me a little “all going well”?

All going well, the sun will be shining (please!) and I will be setting off from Land’s End to spend the better part of two weeks cycling the 1000 miles to John O’Groats.

I grew up not far from John O’Groats and it’s been a bit of a daydream to do ‘LEJOG’ for a long time, but it was only after I cycled the 300 miles from London to Paris in 2016 that I started to think it was something I might actually be able to do.

Then last year I was lucky enough to be at John O’Groats to see the excitement and joy on the faces of Ruth and Rhoda Jones as they zoomed to the end of their own epic, record-breaking LEJOG.  They’re inspirational.  They certainly inspired me.

I won’t be able to do it with half the style that they did, but I’ll be happy just to do the distance… raising awareness and some money for Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation as I do.

There’s a lot to do between now and then, but the only way to get something done is to make a start. So this is me, making a start.