The Harley ride in August 2007 will be, roughly, eight months after I was diagnosed with cancer.  

A Christmas surprise of sorts, but still a surreal episode, even now as I remember what I have been through.  My treatment has been faultless as I conducted a tour of various NHS establishments in southern England: Windsor for consultations, Ascot for the operation and Poole for the radiotherapy; all fantastic, as much as this experience can be.  At Poole I was lucky enough to be on the new Varian Clinac IX radiotherapy machines, the first ones in the UK. Now all I have to remember is to take my tablet, which in itself is reliant on various electronic alarms going off. 

The upside of having had the treatment early on in the year is that I have managed to regain my physical strength to get back into sailing and racing on the Solent.  My way of coping is all about keeping up the normal routine.

 Raising the sponsorship to contribute something to bettering other peoples' cancer experience is important to me. Whereas I have seemingly glided through my treatment, I have friends who have been put through a far more gruelling regime of invasive treatments, and I wish to help them via the Helen Rollason Heal Charity.