THANK YOU from 700 Miles in 7 days!

THANK YOU!

Well, we did it! 745 miles cycled in 7 days, between the seven main brain tumour research centres, from Glasgow to Portsmouth via Newcastle, Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol and Fulham! Over 10,400m of climbing, and the team only suffered 4 punctures and a couple of minor mechanical problems. Just the one crash, into an unforgiving hedgerow (thankfully it was not serious and the main injury was a bruised ego).

The hours and miles of training that we had all done individually paid off as our core level of fitness saw us clock off the miles each day. The poor weather and hills we experienced made the ride challenging however, our team spirit kept us going during difficult times.

Our goal of raising money and increasing awareness for brain tumours was always at the forefront of our minds as we passed through towns and villages with our message, collecting money along the way from very generous people.  With your kind donations and sponsorship, we have managed to collectively raise over £13,500 and thankfully the donations are still being received.  We've been delighted at the media coverage we also gained, further raising the profile of the lack of research funding. Big respect to Professor Geoff Pilkington and his staff at Portsmouth - they have brains the size of planets and hearts of gold.

Thanks to Michael Owen, Peter Buckley, James Noble, Richard Willis, Rob Blackler and Clayton Vaughan for joining the five of us on various legs of the journey and raising lots of money, to 'CJ' Smith for taking a week off work to drive the support van and for looking after us, a big thank you to those that turned up at different stops to meet us and those who were at the finish line in Portsmouth. Kaya, Altay and Taylor joined their dads for part of the final leg into Portsmouth - awesome riding, guys!

We would also like to thank Jon Hill and all at 1Spatial for providing the live tracking throughout the entire journey, Wagamama for looking after us and making sure we were fed and watered in the evenings, Eat Natural, Lucozade Sport, Strathmore Water, Fabulous Bakin’ boys and Zico Coconut Water for providing our energy intake during the day.  Holiday Inn Express, Ibis Hotels, Dakota Group, and Arnos Manor for providing our accommodation in the evenings, Trinity Protection Systems, for their very generous donation towards fuel and other costs, last but not least to Burnt Tree Group Coventry for supplying our transport for the challenge.

We are doing remarkably well, with no after-effects other than going cold turkey coming off the energy gels... The journey has been a great leveller for us all and we've been privileged to have ridden with such a great bunch of people, including Tristan, whom has now qualified for Team GB in the Triathlon World's in NZ in a couple of months. Good luck Trist!

We will continue to work in Taylan’s memory through various events and activities to improve the quality of life for brain tumour sufferers and aid better treatments in the future, so conversations are already underway for a more difficult and challenging ride in 2014! Watch this space!

Together we can make a difference and give hope to the thousands of people diagnosed with a brain tumour each year and their families.

Thank you all once again for all your support.

Please visit the main page for this challenge