15516 RGS ONA Magazine 90_PRINT 30/01/2014 15:00 Page 12
On Yer Bike My Coast to Coast Charity Bike Ride By Michael Grant (81-91) Like many Old Novos, I moved away from the North East when I went to university, and never returned. However, my parents remained there, and one of the highlights of my visits to them in the summer is the ability to go on long bike rides through the Northumbrian countryside.
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ver the course of the noughties, the rides I went on got longer and longer, culminating in a 75mile ride from Berwick to Newcastle along the Northumbrian Coastal Route, which left me happy (and sunburnt down my right-hand side) but utterly exhausted. Having worn myself out doing this, I found myself displacing for some years from the one longer ride left on my to-do list: coast to coast, Bowness-on-Solway to Tynemouth, across the Pennines. The shock of my approaching 40th birthday, however, reminded me that I might not be physically capable of such a long bike ride forever, so I decided that last summer I would force myself to do it by getting myself sponsored for charity. So doing would also make sure I finished, rather than copping out halfway and putting my bike on the train! I also cycled with a friend, Sam, for the same reason. My mother had been suffering from secondary breast cancer for a couple of years by then, so I decided that should be the focus of my fundraising. I chose in the end to split the money three ways. One third went to Macmillan Cancer Support, who did
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a sterling job supporting my mother until her death in January. The second third went to Cancer Research UK, because we don’t just need to help care for people with cancer; we need to learn how to treat and cure it too. Finally, I decided to support Alzheimer’s Research UK because, as Sir Terry Pratchett has publicised, even though one in three people over 65 will develop dementia, Alzheimer’s research receives a fraction (3% at the time Pratchett highlighted it) of the funding cancer does. I set myself a target of £1,000 sponsorship to aim for; not having done anything like this beforehand, I had no idea whether I would manage it. Despite scrutinising maps beforehand, Sam and I ended up partially working out a route on the fly. Much of this involved Hadrian’s Cycleway, which I had been dubious about should I not have the strength to climb back up to the level of Hadrian’s Wall after crossing the North Tyne. It turned out, though, that Hadrian’s Cycleway doesn’t do that, but descends into the valley of the Tyne; it’s not very well named. Our day started at 8:30am, when we left my parents’ house to catch the train to Carlisle. By 10:45am we were at Carlisle, and ready to head in the wrong direction, to get to the starting point.
Michael and friend, Sam, at Gilsland, a village which straddles the border between Cumbria and Northumberland
“My mother had been suffering from secondary breast cancer for a couple of years by then, so I decided that should be the focus of my fundraising.”
Michael at Boustead Hill, Cumbria
