Day 7 - Chipping Camden to Market Drayton

Absence certainly did make the heart grow fonder today. The core group that I have been cycling with lost our trusty, always reliable and ‎ever motivating Chris Jagger for one of the real cycling pros on the team (who shall remain nameless).

Well, instead of an "easy 80 mile" day ‎he took a wrong turn and led us up the hill to end all hills. Andy Foote, who lives nearby and had tried training on this hill literally put himself out of action for a month trying to tackle it...There were a few tears and a more than a little cursing by the top but at least Andy was suitably impressed that we all made it all the way!

No time for photos today, so a shot of my Garmin that is helping to keep track of my miles and which confirms that we are now just a fraction away from half way through in miles and tomorrow we will have completed half the distance and half the days. I hope you will forgive me a little ‎boast: I am pretty proud of what I and the team have achieved so far!

Daniel and I met first met Andy and his wife Judy last year when we visited the Ningbo and KL campuses of the University of Nottingham. They lost their son, Joseph, to a brain tumour seven years ago. Andy and Judy became tireless fund raisers for children's brain tumour awareness and research through a charity they founded. This, after several mergers, is now one of the most important charities in the field and a very important funder of the work of the CBTRC and similar centres of excellence in the UK - The Brian Tumour Charity.

Andy and Judy are an inspiration and a key reason why I have undertaken this challenge. Today Andy was riding in honour of his beautiful son Joseph who would have been the same age as our son Max and who too should have been collecting his GCSE results today...