Update: Our original blog homepage is unchanged below. Our challenge was originally set for April 2018, but Fiona took a turn for the worse during this month and sadly passed away on the 1st May. We postponed our trip to August, determined to complete the challenge and make our terribly missed friend proud. We initially raised around £5,000 for the Royal Marsden Sarcoma Research Fund in 2017, and in Fiona’s last few weeks our fundraising focused on raising money for desperately needed Immunotherapy treatment for Fiona. Over £45,000 was raised thanks to the kind generosity of so many. It was Fiona’s wish that the money goes to help others if she wouldn’t be able to benefit from it herself and the Fiona Strong Memorial Fund has been set-up to do this. Any further sponsorship we raise for our challenge will be in aid of this cause. You can donate to the Fiona Strong Memorial Fund using the link on this site.
**********************************************************************************
We are Abs & Sal and have been best friends since starting secondary school together in 1998. Our athletic achievements to date have been modest (A-team hockey goal-keeper, the odd half-marathon, etc.) and minimal, and we have only taken up cycling very recently. By the time we embark on LEJOG, we will have owned our trusty two-wheeled companions – Jason & Kylie – for just a year.
Since one of our closest friends was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, we have spent many an hour wondering what, if anything, we can do to help. Obviously, we spend a lot of time bringing our friend joy and laughter through the universal mediums of alcohol, karaoke & pizza, but earlier this year we started thinking bigger (sorry Francos & K Box – we still love you).
Considering what we could do to raise a meaningful sum of money, we started to brainstorm ideas, and quickly realised that it had to be something that our friend would not, in a million years, be jealous of us doing without her. Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro was vetoed, as was anything going to a new and exciting country (sorry Scotland). I’d recently bought a bike to cycle in Ride London, and we both had a long-standing love of drunk cycling round vineyards far and wide (Cornwall, Australia, New Zealand). No one in a million years would be jealous of us taking on LEJOG, and it provided the added benefit of others being able to get involved as well, either for a leg or a (pizza and karaoke?) party at the end.
The idea started taking shape and as soon as we gently broached the subject to our friend, word got around pretty quickly; there was no going back… only up!
Please sign-up to Abs’ & Sal’s LEJOG LeBLOG to keep up-to-date with our planning progress, and to get involved with fundraising events, training rides, legs and, of course, the party at the end. We would love as many of you (and your family and friends and friends of friends and friends of family) as possible to be involved in whatever way you can – training tips, cycling buddies, gigantic charitable donations and putting up with non-stop LEJOG chat for the next 6 or so months.
We will be raising money for charities supporting sarcoma patients and will have more details about this soon.
Lots of love,
Abs & Sal xxx
Abs' & Sal's LEJOG LeBLOG 