A Ride for Daniel

I cried. Literally - I cried like a child in the middle of a café in Blandford Forum. It had rained all morning on what was meant to be the last day of a solo-but-supported ride to Dorchester, but the support (Liz, my wife) had been out of signal and I hadn't been able to find anywhere to shelter. We eventually found each other and went into this café - and I cried.

Our older grandson, Daniel, born in 2007 at 30 weeks, has quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Six years later, he had the opportunity of an operation to sever nerves in his spines, nerves which carried the spasticity to his legs. Cut those and the remaining nerves could carry his message to the legs without the "white noise" of the spasticity swamping it. Our daughter and son-in-law were fund-raising, with a £55K target as the operation wasn't available on the NHS and would be carried out in America.

Daniel Before and After His Operation.

My contribution was to ride to the other grandfather's house, just outside Dorchester in Dorset. Normally, in September, this would be a two-day CTC trip, probably with a train-ride home … but this wasn't a normal September. I'd had a serious septicaemia attack in April arising from an infected gall bladder and then in June had the op to remove that gall bladder. Regrettably, the key-hole approach didn't work so I now have an eight-inch scar … which in that September, was still new.

And, because I'd been so ill - hospitalised for a week on assorted drips in April - I'd not been out on club runs since about mid-March. So by September I was low on mileage and still coming back from the operation. I accordingly planned the ride to take four days - confident in what I had learned over the years from club runs, both the riding and the navigation.

So - to the ride - it turned out to be 170 miles and started off badly. Day #1 was meant to be Croydon to Guildford (where Daniel and the family live) - 30 miles via Headley Village and Bookham but the rain was bad, the wind worse, so I piled into the support car and we drove the first leg (I did do it later, in reverse). On arrival I discovered that my #1 cycling shoes were still at home (because I'd not ridden in them) and all I had was a "summer" pair, which were anything but waterproof.

Despite me being overweight, I don't count as "beyond ordinary traffic".

Day #2 had me walking... a few yards only, maybe, but within a couple of miles of starting, I was walking up a hill outside Guildford - National Cycle Route 22 includes a short stretch of perhaps 1-in-4 but they've kindly installed some steps... on a cycle route. Friends in Romsey had asked me to stay overnight with them, and then day #3 took me to Verwood. Daniel's other grandmother lives there and offered us a bed.

There are hills...

In the New Forest.

The Rufus Stone (where King William II was killed in 1100 AD).

Day #4 was the 2nd longest, Verwood - Broadmayne at 38 miles. I'd plotted a route using the "Tarrants" and the "Winterbournes" but was disappointed not to find pretty little villages bursting with character. Nice Valleys to ride along, though...

Liz agreed we'd meet in Blandford Forum for lunch and when I arrived I was soaked (remember those #1 shoes?), I had no signal, there was no shelter and I was brassed off in a big way.

Blandford Forum, after lunch - it's stopped raining!!

My fund-raising target had been £3,400, being the sum I'd raised for Action Medical Research four years earlier riding London - Paris over four days, fully supported. As I left Croydon this time, I'd gone over £3,000 and hoped to collect the remainder to meet my target by the time I got home.

So when Liz got me into this café and I, my bag and my helmet were dripping water onto the floor, and she was ordering some soup and hot food, I opened an envelope she'd been given from Cheryl, the other grandmother, earlier that day. Cheryl knows some wealthy people and one of them had asked her to pass on a cheque.

When I saw that it was for £1,000, I cried.

The rest of that day was dry, and the end was in sight (subject to eventually riding home from Guildford). We reached the other grandfather's house on schedule and after a shower I sank into a large armchair for the next few hours.

Arrival!!!

Day #5; we drove back to Guildford and I rode the 30 miles home, climbing Box Hill's newly-resurfaced road ("newly" = for the previous year's Olympics) for the first time. I eventually raised £4,400; the grand total raised reached an amazing £115K+, to include a multi-person "Everesting" of Box Hill by "Team Daniel". Daniel had the operation in Great Ormond Street (the medical skill having crossed the Atlantic) and he now rides a custom-built trike and walks with a frame. He may never walk unaided, but is mobile enough to manage something approaching normal life (minus football, cricket, cross-country running, etc.).