Andrew Russell, Grant Jamieson, Rene Van Oorschot, David Goodwin, Graham Oliver, Thomas Lydiate, Ricky Mclarnon, Ken Rae and Andrew Wallace set out on a challenge to cycle from Aberdeen to Leek, in memory of their friend Chris Parr.
“After the loss of our dear friend Chris Parr to sudden death syndrome, we were all at a loss. It is impossible to know what to do in such a drastic and unexpected circumstance. We decided to try and reflect Chris’s positive attitude to life in the way we reacted to his passing. So we decided to put ourselves in an environment none of us were particularly familiar with, extended exercise! We are all cricketers, definitely not cyclists and at the beginning of the campaign none of us had the faintest idea about bikes! We quickly gathered information on how to go about such an fund-raising activity and CRY were very helpful, sending us t-shirts and sponsorship forms as well as giving us advice on how to publicise the cycle and how to set up our fundraising webpage.
Once all our equipment had been purchased and a route half-planned, we set off from Aberdeen. We had pre-booked all our accommodation beforehand meaning we had to reach our destination each day, on average 85 miles. We also had a support bus travellling along side us, stopping every ten or so miles to help us refuel on food and water etc, driven by our very able and much needed Christopher Morrison. We had a few delays along the way eg searching for a lost member on the first day for an hour and a half, a few punctures and bike issues, as well as a couple of progressive injuries resulting in a few late starts. But overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable week, all 9 of us finished the trip together, a fantastic effort by all. We have already raised close to £6,000 with more expected to come in in the next few months. We just hope our efforts have been worthwhile and that we can actually make a difference, to honour our friend CP.
A shout out to Pete Maksimcyk as well you accompanied us for the first day but had to work during the week.”
Please also visit the teams blog: http://leekorbust.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
Andrew Wallace