Double five-star winner Piggy March and her husband Tom will lead a bunch of eight cyclists on a 1,100km trip from Blair Citadel to London this autumn, a problem named Cycle4Caroline.
They may goal to boost half 1,000,000 kilos for Spinal Analysis and the British Eventing (BE) Help Belief in reminiscence of Tom’s sister Caroline, who handed away in March this yr after sustaining life-changing accidents in an eventing fall in April 2022.
“It’s been very troublesome for all her family and friends and we discovered ourselves a bit misplaced when it comes to the place we have been going and what to do with ourselves,” mentioned Tom, explaining that the concept for the trip got here out of a dialogue over lunch with former occasion rider Tommy How, now a director of physique protector producer Racesafe.
“He was speaking about driving from London to Paris, then Piggy mentioned she’d be up for that and one other beer later, it was spiralling uncontrolled.”
The trip will begin at Blair Citadel on 20 November and end on the Savoy Resort in London on 30 November, the day of the BE Help Belief ball on the venue. Alongside the way in which, it should absorb all of the British CCI4*-L and CCI5* venues – Blair, Bramham, Burghley, Badminton and Blenheim – in addition to Belsay, Chatsworth and Windsor.
Becoming a member of Tom and Piggy on Cycle4Caroline will probably be Tommy How, Ian Stark (chair of trustees for the BE Help Belief), Piggy’s sister Nini French, occasion rider Holly Woodhead, Brett Bullimore (husband of medal-winning occasion rider Sarah) and Alastair Wilson, who’s joint-patron of the BE Help Belief along with his spouse Nicola Wilson, who suffered life-changing spinal accidents in a fall at Badminton Horse Trials in 2022. Particular friends will be part of for sections alongside the way in which.
Holly Woodhead, Tom March and Piggy March lead the Cycle4Caroline riders on the launch occasion. Credit score: Jason Bax
Coaching has began for a lot of the core members, with some good-natured joshing on the occasion launch at present (19 August) at Piggy’s yard in Maidwell, Northamptonshire.
“It’s downhill from Scotland to London – what can go flawed?” mentioned Alastair.
Tom defined gently: “That’s not the case – and there’s a motive everybody cycles from Land’s Finish to John O’Groats, which is the prevailing wind, however we solely learnt that after we’d set the route, so we’re trying ahead to plenty of wind in our faces in November.”
The group’s route will contain some vital hills once they cease in at Ian Stark’s dwelling close to Selkirk – “I wasn’t certain that was such a good suggestion, trying on the topography map,” mentioned Tom – in addition to once they go to Chatsworth.
“Having a assist system is unbelievable”
The group hope Cycle4Caroline will elevate £500,000 by way of donations and partnering with companies. The cash raised will probably be break up equally between Spinal Analysis and the BE Help Belief.
Alastair mentioned: “The BE Help Belief have been excellent to Nicola and me after we have been in hassle two years in the past. When you’re at all-time low, having a assist system to pay money for you is unbelievable.
“You’ll be able to lose your sport, your online business and it’s a lonely place to be. They usually assist individuals with much less severe accidents, too.”
BE Help Belief basic supervisor Jane Hunter-Walsh mentioned the cash will probably be “transformative” for the charity, which was based in 2021 to assist the bodily and psychological well being of BE competing members. It has helped greater than 60 individuals since then.
“The common beneficiary has six periods, at a price of £540, and when somebody has a life-changing harm, supporting them can run into six figures,” she mentioned.
Tom mentioned “having a security web there to assist in that second of want is invaluable”, happening to speak about Caroline’s ardour for brand new know-how and developments in spinal wire analysis.
“We wished a charity past equestrian, which is combating to make individuals’s lives higher once they have suffered a spinal wire harm,” he mentioned.
Spinal Analysis has been working for 40 years and is the UK’s main charity funding medical analysis worldwide to develop efficient therapies for paralysis brought on by a spinal wire harm. Somebody within the UK suffers a spinal wire harm each two hours, a lot of them in automobile crashes or on a regular basis conditions comparable to falling down the steps.
Tara Stewart, chair of Spinal Analysis, mentioned this assist “couldn’t have come at a greater time” as a result of the charity is lastly on the stage the place function-restoring therapeutics are being examined in human trials, providing actual hope that curing paralysis would be the medical breakthrough of the twenty first century.
The assist crew for Cycle4Caroline consists of biking coach Sara Symington (double Olympic bicycle owner and now head of Olympic and Paralympic programmes at British Biking), physio Ash Wallace, bicycle mechanic Alan Rayner, Sarah Skillin (founder and director of promoting company EquiConsulting) and Pippie Polson and Piggy’s head woman Amy Phillips, who’re main on logistics, advertising and partnerships.
Learn the way to assist Cycle4Caroline
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H&H journal editor and eventing editor
Pippa is a real eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand expertise of competing as much as British Eventing intermediate and worldwide CCI2*-L degree, and has labored within the trade on a high occasion yard. Pippa enjoys nothing greater than immersing herself within the sport on the highest degree, reporting from the five-stars and worldwide championships, together with the Olympics.
