Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

In February 2013 I lost a good friend, Richard Percival (Percy). If you do not know his story please take a minute to visit www.percyspals.com.  He wasn't just a great guy but was also someone I thought was quite inspirational in many ways.

At the beginning of 2013 I made several resolutions (losing weight, getting fitter, socialising more etc.). I had hoped to be able to do a lot of this with Richard but as usual was late geting started and now that cannot be.

Along with a large group of "Percy's pals" I am planning to ride from Land's End to John O'Groats raising money in Richard's name to help improve treatment for people unfortunate enough to suffer the same illness that he did.

For me this also represents a big personal challenge; when I committed to this in June 2013 I weighed nineteen and a half stone and could not cycle a local four mile circuit without stopping to walk up all the hills. Just one year from then I am planning to be a lot lighter, a lot fitter and will be cycling over 900 miles in just twelve days!

Richard himself had planned to do the same ride to raise money for charity in July 2013 so this will be an especially poignant tribute to him.

Our first target is to raise £250,000 for a portable CT scanner for the Neurological Unit in Southampton General Hospital. This will significantly reduce the time taken to diagnose problems and help give the best possible chances of a good recovery. This is dramatically shown in the video at www.percyspals.com.

I will hugely appreciate any support you can give and with your help the portable scanner will make a significant difference to people in need of care from all over the south of England.

Many thanks indeed

Mark

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