Why I am Cycling to Paris for INPUT Diabetes

London 2 Paris Logo + Input Logo
Disclaimer: this post is all about fundraising – sponsorship link is here.

The beginnings of a trip

In preparation for doing last year’s 100km Nightrider charity ride with group of work colleagues we naturally formed a team bond, of people who just enjoyed cycling together. After the Nightrider event we decided that we’d cycle somewhere in 2015 as a team. It had to be a bigger challenge than before whilst not being so silly we’d never make it.
Many months later and the rough idea was formed: we would cycle from London to Paris taking in much of the Avenue Verte, south of Dieppe. With routes planned the trip works out at 320 kilometres, over 4 days, split into two days of 100km, one of 65km and the last of 55km.
This ride would be an aided ride, quite different from the normal London to Paris route where people are guided by a company who plan the route, the hotels, supply food, have support vehicles which carry your belongings and charge a fair bit for doing this.
This trip is a cheap trip, I’m organising the routes, we’re carrying our own gear and it’s going to be fun too. It’s costing less than £250 all in.

To fundraise or not to fundraise

Originally the plan was to get some sponsorship but after a while the group decided to just treat this as a holiday. I on the other hand decided to respond to Lesley from INPUTs question from the previous year “I wondered if you’d like to raise some money for INPUT, we don’t need much to keep going”.
So with that thought in my mind I decided that INPUT Diabetes would be my charity of choice for this trip.
If you’d like to sponsor me the sponsorship link is here.

Why not raise for a bigger charity?

Quite simply, I already have.
As a family we’ve already raised thousands for JDRF and as a national peer supporter I devote a fair amount of my free time to Diabetes UK.
Selecting INPUT was in some ways a difficult decision, given that there are so many smaller worthy charities I’d like to raise money for – DRWF, T1International, Diabetics with Eating Disorders, Seahawks – all of whom never seem to attract the fundraisers the way bigger charities like JDRF and Diabetes UK do.
These smaller charities need such a smaller amount of money to keep going and provide such a valuable service for the people they support.

A little more about INPUT

Unashamedly stolen from their website here’s a little more about INPUT Diabetes.
We aim to help any person who could benefit from insulin pump therapy, and has motivation to use it, to access it through the NHS. Our mission is to support patients by advocating for easier access to diabetes technology across the UK – from insulin pumps to smart glucose meters and continuous glucose monitoring.

INPUT the charity we’ve never needed

We’re the lucky ones, we’ve never needed to use the services of INPUT and although I’ve asked them the odd question we never needed their help, but so many others do. Raising money for them is more about recognising the great job they do advising people of a way forward to get an insulin pump, helping them through decisions about pumps and CGM.
Seeing Lesley at JDRF Discovery Days tirelessly trying to help others is a lovely sight, she’s such a great advocate for pump therapy. Hearing another one of INPUT’s team, Melissa, talk about the Diabetes UK Big Event was also great as spurred me on to looking into using CGM as soon as possible.

And finally…

Just in case you missed it…my sponsorship link is hereLondon 2 Paris Logo + Input Logo

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