First bike ride success - July 2011

A bike ride in the Kent countryside on 2 July 2011 organised by KCH LRT co-chairman Tony Bertin and his wife Penny, also a trustee, raised £213 for the trust. This first event was so successful that it is hoped it will now become an annual fixture.

“Saturday was a thoroughly enjoyable team building exercise - a fairly low key one but those are the best sort. A number of family members and supporters met us for lunch, including patient Adrian Heathfield who was swimming across Dover Harbour the following day,” said Penny.

Participants met at Bekesbourne station and cycled through the villages of Ickham and Littlebourne, stopping at The Rose Inn, Wickhambreaux, for lunch. The first to finish was Tony Bertin.  The event was an opportunity to enjoy lunch with friends, meet new ones and raise awareness for the limb reconstruction patients.

For two of the participants, the ride was an easy one compared with what they will be facing later this month. Consultant surgeon and trustee Mark Phillips and his friend Rawdon Sherwood cycled down from Greenwich to Bekesbourne in 3hrs 36minutes to join the race. Their ride was in preparation for their participation in L’Etape du Tour, the opportunity for amateur cyclists to ride one of the key stages of this year’s Tour de France. The ride takes place during a rest day in the month-long race.
Mark and Rawdon will join others for the grueling 109-kilometre stage from Modane Valfréjus to the summit of Alpe d'Huez in the French Alps.

Gymnast Liana suffers from scoliosis, which causes the spine to curve. She recently spent four weeks at the SOS clinic in Suffolk learning how to improve her posture through intensive exercises and with specialised physiotherapy, and is now almost fully recovered. (Read Liana’s story.)