The connection and why we decided to try and raise some money is Simon and Andrea Tasker. Their son Christopher was found to have a heart irregularity, I believe they were then pointed in the direction of CRY to undertake a screening to understand if it was an issue or not, when you met them they were having their second son Joseph screened as well just to make sure. Thankfully both are OK. On one of our training rides (yes we did some!) Andrea asked us if we would be willing to try and raise some finds for the charity as a worthwhile cause, initially we just wanted to complete the challenge as 5 friends and tick it off our bucket list, once we heard the story and how worthwhile the charity is we all said YES and set to work! Most of us are very local, Middlesbrough/Teesside/North Yorkshire/Durham so helping a local charity just feels more rewarding anyhow. I got the website running and we all then went about our business to see if we could raise some money. Initially we thought it would be great to raise £500 however we passed that pretty quickly so just re-set to £1000, we never really thought we would get to or much passed that but amazingly we have, most people that have sponsored us have recognised how tough the challenge is for us (not athletes and on mountain bikes) and what a good cause (probably more obscure than the “traditional” ones). We are currently at £2,159.50 plus £345.00 gift aid taking us to £2,504.50 overall. There is a bit more promised and Simon has been told his company will donate £500.00, hence we should break £3000.00 It must be said that the help we had from CRY was great with T-shirts for our supporters etc., it was nice that they took a real interest in us, it made the effort more personnel Getting the message from you was a bit of a shock too, but again made it personnel and even more committed to help. Top row Tom Drysdale (MAIN support to riders) Rob Doyle (Rider and route planner) Annette Doyle (support) Simon Tasker (Rider) Eric Morecambe (very funny man) Jayne Tyerman (support) Helen Peacock (support) Nigel Peacock (Rider) Bottom Row Sandra Drysdale (support) Andrea Tasker (Rider) Chris Tyerman (Rider) On the finish photo L-R it is Rob Doyle Simon Tasker Chris Tyerman Nigel Peacock Andrea Tasker
