About
The Idea
On the 28th August last year, 3 friends were sitting in a pub in South West London discussing the idea of carrying out some kind of physical challenge in 2009. A few ideas were discussed but it was eventually decided that an epic cycle ride would be something they would all be interested in, and the 600 miles in 6 days challenge was born.
As they discussed potential routes, none of them could imagine how the challenge would suddenly and tragically take on a whole lot more meaning…
Life Changing
A frantic phone call to one of the group at 9:30pm revealed that his 20 year old brother Oliver had been horrifically stabbed in an unprovoked attack in East London whilst walking with a female friend. He was being resuscitated at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and the family were all on their way.
On arrival at the hospital, the events of the attack slowly unfolded and Oliver’s condition remained critical – life saving emergency heart surgery got him through the night and at 4:30am he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit where he remained critical. It transpired over the next few days that Oliver’s spinal cord had been partially severed in the attack, leaving him with minimal movement from the neck down.
It would be 4 months before Oliver would leave the ICU for a specialist spinal unit in North London, and a further month before he could breathe on his own without the aid of a life support machine.
Oliver is now in rehabilitation where he receives 24/7 care from a team of nurses as they slowly work to rebuild his strength and movements.
Oliver has shown inspirational strength and determination in his recovery so far but there is still a long way to go. His rehabilitation will take months, even years, and the support he continues to receive from those around him will be instrumental in aiding his progress.
The Cause
Ride2Recovery 2009 aims to raise money for two spinal injury charities and a trust that will benefit Oliver himself and anything he may need in the future.
In addition to this, the riders are aiming to raise awareness of the current knife crime problem facing the UK. Figures released at the end of last year reveal that there were 322 knife murders in the UK between April 2007 and April 2008 (source: Sky News December 2008)… That’s 6 for every week of the year but doesn’t even take into account life changing cases like Oliver’s where the results are thankfully not fatal.
Oliver’s story highlights the fact that contrary to the media reports we are all so used to hearing, it is not only teenage gang members from marginal communities who are affected by knife crime; each year, people from every walk of life are killed or left with life changing injuries as a result of knife wounds. These not only affect those involved, but the lives of their families and friends.
We hope that by raising awareness of the knife crime problem the UK, we can prevent at least one other family from facing what Oliver, his family and his friends have lived through for the last 6 months and continue to deal with on a day to day basis.
And for some inspiration…
‘Good luck to all the intrepid souls taking on the 600 miles from Westminster to Morzine by bike in Ride2Recovery. Don’t tell them but there are some good hills in between! Spinal Research UK and Aspire are very worthy causes and the cyclists personal motivations for this expedition is great. Please support in any way you can and best wishes to you Oli. Knife crime is a national problem which often victimises people indiscriminately and it is time it stopped.’
Mark Beaumont BA FRSA
On Friday 15th February 2008 at 1530, Mark Beaumont completed his 18,000 miles circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. Mark arrived back at the Arc de Triomphe 194 days and 17 hours after leaving there on 5th August 2007. Total distance cycled was 18,297 miles through 20 countries.
