Blood, Grit & Tears - 200miles of Gravel

2020 has been a hard year for us all, but it has been particularly difficult for the Ball family. In February, Laurence suffered a catastrophic spinal injury. He is paralysed from the shoulders down and has limited use of his hands. He spent the entirety of lockdown isolated in hospital, 50 miles away from his wife and children. He was allowed no visitors due to the pandemic and yet somehow he has amazed us all with his positivity and hard work with his rehabilitation. Following immense planning and preparation, Loz has finally made it home to his wife Sarah and his two beautiful daughters Tilly (3y) and Charlotte (1y).
However, Loz's journey has only just begun, as both he and his family adapt to managing his new way of living.  Loz desperately needs a better wheelchair, one that is lightweight and custom built for him so that they as a family can get out and about and give their children as normal life as possible.  

In order to raise the money required, Nat and I decided we needed a challenge. As most of you know we really enjoy riding our bikes, even over long distances so this needed to be really tough to be worth you throwing some of your hard earned cash at us. We have therefore decided to ride 200miles of mainly gravel and off road tracks around the Peak District in one go. We are unsure of how long this will take us but we suspect it will be at least 24hours of riding. We will have short stops to refuel but otherwise we will ride through the night without sleep. We are no strangers to pain and discomfort but I fear this will be "emotional". When the going gets tough we will drag each other through with the knowledge that no matter how hard it is, how painful, how much we are suffering none of it will compare to what Sarah and Loz have been through this year. Their positivity and ability to adapt and overcome this awful injury will be a constant source of inspiration to us and we hope to do them proud.