Cycle Challenge Diary

The Diary of a Challenge

Sunday 11th November 2012

We are currently lying in a very comfy bed at the Devere Theobalds park reflecting on the first epic day of our challenge!

After a hefty fry up prepared by my wonderful mother... and lots of last minute faffing about, we headed off to the Huntsman in Eridge and the reality of what we were about to do dawned on us.

Some of the delicious cakes on sale!
We raised over £250!

Friends, family and the lovely Emma from the Huntsman were hard at work setting up our cake sale when we arrived and I have to admit we were pretty gutted that we weren't going to be able to spend the day at the pub eating cake!
The fab team from Big Buddha were also on site to capture our big day, and they managed to move Mum to tears before we left.  They wanted to know how we were feeling, the honest answer was crapping ourselves but they wanted something more eloquent than that!

Well in all honesty we are terrified!

It was amazing that so many people turned out to see us off..... friends, family, colleagues and even people that we have never met but who have been through the tragic loss of a baby themselves and wanted to support Steve and I.  With over 50 of them there, there really was no turning back....

So after a very emotional 2 minutes silences at 11am, and 25 minutes of procrastination and dithering we set off with Steve as chief navigator.and 5 extra riders in tow.

Do we really want to do this?

The first few miles through the East Sussex countryside were stunning, but all the while we were thinking - oh my goodness.... we are riding to Yorkshire! There are trains to Yorkshire, surely that would be easier.

Before we had even finished 10 miles we had our first incident of the day and had to fix a broken chain... there was a 20 minute delay.

But seriously, East Sussex has some RIDICULOUS hills, and roads that are on the map but don't exist... oh and a few places for Justin (and my Mum following in the car) to get a puncture.

There's a fly in my pasta!

All of this to explain why we only made it to our lunch stop 1.5 hours after we were supposed to, but that did give Polly and Donna an opportunity to put on a fabulous spread for us.  Fuelled up, and with few extra layers, we quickly got back on the road again, noticing the sun getting low in the sky.

Luckily the second half of the ride was far less hilly, but unfortunately we did have the not so friendly London drivers to deal with.  We have been sworn at, spat and and virtually knocked off our bikes.  But in the end, having completed 5 additional miles due to us getting rather lost in South London, we made it to Cheshunt in the dark, only 2 hours later than planned.

Where's the bed?

We are tired, achy but very proud of our first day, and not at all looking forward to getting back on a bike tomorrow!

Good night all, we will check in again tomorrow!!!






Monday 12th November 2012

I just realised that in the last two days we have cycled 103 miles and are now tucked up in bed in Cambridge.  If anyone had asked me six months ago if I fancied riding that far I would have laughed at them and told them that I am more built for afternoon tea than an afternoon bike ride!  But it is amazing what you can achieve when you are driven to make a difference and your motivation is as strong as ours is, motivation to make our girls' lives matter even though they never had a chance to live them.

Yet ANOTHER puncture

Today we cycled 45 miles from Cheshunt to Cambridge in some delightful rain for most of the day.  Luckily the combination of two Morrises navigating meant that we only got lost twice, and then only temporarily!!!  That being said, Justin did manage to get his third puncture in two days, and one so bad that we had to call the support team for emergency assistance... and fair play to them, they were better than the AA or the RAC, the response time was around 2 minutes! They were quite excited to have an emergency and got us fixed up an on our way again in no time!

After a few wrong turns and some fab third party route guidance from the support team.... who thought taking us through a ford would give us an opportunity to clean our bikes, we were almost back on track.  Had the weather not been so awful, and our bottoms not so sore, we might even say it was quite an enjoyable part of the ride!

We arrived in to the pretty village of Barley for our lunch stop about 28 miles in to the ride, and found the team all set up in the car park of the lovely Fox & Hounds pub, the staff there kindly let us use their loos and made hot coffee for the boys!  Donna and Polly even received a donation from the man who lives next door to the pub... so big thanks to the people of Barley for their support and a warm (if somewhat wet and rainy) welcome!

Yay... only 3 more miles to go

Knowing we only had 17 miles of the journey to go certainly spurred the boys on, but I found myself battling the pain barrier, achy, tired and cold I was ready to give up, but Steve and the thought of our girls managed to keep me going, before I knew it we had reached Trumpington, and a beautiful sign declaring we had arrived in the City of Cambridge!  Just three more miles along fabulous Cambridge cycle paths, and we arrived in the city centre around 3pm... before the support team did!

Warming our little hearts up

Despite being let down last minute by the Asda store in Cambridge, the wonderful Tiz (who has been our accommodation and collections manager) spent all day on the phones and managed to put us in touch with Holly and her team from Build a Bear in Cambridge.  As they already work with Tommy's they were keen for us to come in store and meet them.  Although we weren't able to collect in the store as it was quite quiet, they did donate us a beautiful bear who we called Boltby after the place we were staying when Harriet & Felicity were born.  The team in store had great fun making us look silly building the bear, but we were happy to be inside in the warm!!! They had us dancing and jumping all over the place, but as we placed two little hearts inside of the bear we both made a little wish for the girls and a little tear came to our eyes.  Once Boltby was ready we collected his birth certificate and it seemed incredible that we get a certificate for a bear when our two girls got nothing.

After we finished with the team at Build a Bear we hung around street corners for a while and were scooped up but our van and 4x4 and taken to the Menzies Hotel in Cambridge for the night.  Within 10 minutes of arriving we were all stripped off and in the jacuzzi - it certainly bought life back to our tired and achy legs.  Off to bed now for an early night before we head to Peterborough tomorrow - we will have Dec & Emma with us tomorrow bringing fresh legs and enthusiasm to the team!



Tuesday 13th November 2012

I have had news that I have made more than one man cry with my last post, that wasn't my intention, but this time I will do my best to avoid bringing tears to anyone's eyes.

The lovely Dec & Emma

After a really tough day yesterday we had a good nights' sleep and a nice lazy start to the morning... the boys set up a bit of a bike workshop up in the car park to grease up our chains and get the bikes ready to roll... whilst I caught up on some text messages and emails.

After a tasty breakfast at the Menzies Hotel and a lovely chat with the lady on reception, the sun came out and Declan and Emma arrived to help us on our way to Peterborough.  As we set off at a very relaxed 10.30 we got a steady 15 mph pace going along the nice flat roads of the Fens.

The team in St Ives post puncture!

I am not sure whether I was sprinkled with Angel dust last night but somehow the world seemed a brighter, more positive place!  My legs stopped aching and our bums hurt less, and we seemed to power through the miles... until Justin managed to have yet another puncture in St Ives (not the one on the south coast) oh and Jamie's wee stop accident in a ditch, which Donna was more than happy to tend to later on in the day!

Do you want me to give it a rub?

It wasn't long before we arrived for a tasty lunch in the car park of the Cross Keys in Upwood, where the staff were really generous and donated to our fundraising.  After a few more running repairs, some exploding inner tubes, a bit of Savlon (thank you David Donaghue for the fabulous first aid kit) and a picture with the tree house, we were back on the road and on our way to Peterborough.

The ride from here was pretty quick and uneventful apart from some pretty strong winds trying to blow us off our bikes, and Jamie's inability to remember street names! Before we knew it we had navigated our way through Peterborough and we could see the welcoming green signs of Asda!

Donna with our giant sign at Asda

After a 35 mile ride the team still had the energy and enthusiasm to stand outside of Asda collecting for Tommy's and Tamba and tell the people of Peterborough about our girls and what we were doing.  It was touching how many people actually did come to give us money and wish us well... although it has to be said that Andy was the champion donation collector!

A two hour stint outside the store and we headed off to Halfords for more inner tubes as Justin had already used all of our spares, and then on to the Ramada Hotel for a nice drink before dinner.

Meeting Steph with her bags of goodies

We were then lucky enough to meet another wonderful person who added to the overall positivity of the day.  Steph Mathers, mum to her 10 month old twin daughters called Hope & Faith (I love the fact they have the same initials as Hattie & Flic) had heard about our challenge on facebook and twitter and wanted to do something more practical than just donating as she knows how special twin girls are.  Steph didn't want to tell me about her twins as she didn't want to upset me, but I am so pleased she did, and it is nice to know that not every story ends up in the way ours did.  So anyway... along she came to the hotel (very brave to come alone given she didn't know us) with bags full of food to keep the team fuelled up for our ride tomorrow - fruit, sandwiches, crisps, drinks and sweets!  We are very spoilt!  It really is moments like these that make you realise that in the darkest of times there will always be people out there who will go the extra mile to help you - thank you Steph for your support!

The Boathouse in Peterborough

We then enjoyed a tasty dinner at the Boathouse with Steph - big thanks to Mike and the team at the pub for making us so welcoming and donating 10% of our bill to the fundraising pots which are starting to feel decidedly heavy.

Overall today has been a really special day and has made me realise that the journey we are taking for our girls is helping us heal too.

Tomorrow is the 14th of November which is the due date we were originally given before we found our our miracle was two little miracles, which we were never lucky enough to get to know.  It is also a longer day so it will be a tough one, but with so many amazing people out there supporting us along the way, I am sure we will make it!

Thank you to every single person who has made today so special.


Wednesday 14th November 2012 

It was tough getting up this morning, I felt like I could have done with another few hours sleep, and I think after the easy day yesterday I was pretty scared about the ride that lay ahead…

I did get up and I did get dressed and yes I did get back on my bike!  But only after a couple of poached eggs on toast and a text message from my boss to let me know that my firm have waived their maximum charity matching and want to put £2,000 in to our collection for our two amazing charities.  That was the perfect text message to lift my spirits and give me little extra drive – so big thanks Mark!  I also have to thank some of our twitter followers for getting behind us this morning and sending their support and sunshine!

Polly, give us a lift!

Apart from a few pee breaks and a stop in a garden centre for a number two (the boys again!) the morning went pretty well.  The miles went by quite easily, but it has to be said that the route today was probably one of the worst of the trip as most of it was on the A15 with big lorries rumbling by and what seemed to be hundreds of pot holes.

At lunch time we felt like film stars as we arrived down a lane with no name to be greeted by a film crew and lunch all set up for us.  Then a couple of octogenarian fans turned up to wish us well and deliver essential supplies of chocolate cake and Worcestershire Sauce – big thank s to Bill & Betty for the hugs and to chef Wendy for a delicious chocolate cake which is being consumed with strawberries, blueberries and cream as I write!  Just was struggling a little by lunch so I fed him a rehydration drink and made him do a few stretches!

Smile... you're on camera

As we set  off along a lovely quiet lane for the second leg of the day with Emma the camera woman hanging out of the roof of a car we were enjoying 10 miles of lorry free cycling, but we did spend most of the time trying to avoid cow muck on the road.  Unfortunately the rehydration drink played havoc with Justin’s bladder and we spent the afternoon stopping every five miles for him to have a wee!  We will be shipping him off to the doctors when we get him home.

Bill & Betty cheer us on

After a grey morning we were encouraged by a little bit of sunshine from our girls in the afternoon… until that is we hit the A15 and spent the next 15 miles wishing the road would end to give our bottoms a break!  It eventually did end and we were overjoyed to see a sign warning us of a 10% downhill slope – at which point the boys zoomed past me and I then hit red traffic lights at the bottom of the hill so was forced to emergency stop on a bike!  A bit more navigating by road numbers from Mr Morris and he road straight past Asda... luckily some of us had our eyes open and dragged him back!

Having beaten the support crew to the store we headed inside, I went to speak to the managers while the boys sorted themselves out with a warming coffee each from the café!  Although our contact wasn't in store as she had already gone home, the lovely team of managers were very happy for us to collect (once they had told us we should have cycled quicker!) and be filmed outside the store.  It was a little tough walking through the shop past all of the beautiful my first Christmas outfits for babies – I just wished I was there buying them for Hattie & Flic, rather than cycling to the store to create a legacy for them.

The lovely staff at Asda Lincoln

We were a little worried that the store was too quiet and we wouldn't make a lot, but then the managers came out and made a very generous donation (thank you) and set our collection pots rattling!  We counted up this evening and we had made around £200 in the tubs over the last two days – so thank you to all the people of Peterborough and Lincoln.

One of the highlights of the evening was arriving at our accommodation for the night – the lodge that had been offered to us by Kate and Tim from Rural Roosts outside of Lincoln – the whole team looked like kids at Christmas as they walked in and saw how nice the place was… and the fact that they could sit on the comfy sofas and watch the girls prepare their (delicious) dinner before watching football!

Luxury lodgings for the night

Tonight our candle is lit for our precious girls and we are heading to bed for a good rest before we tackle the Humber Bridge tomorrow.

Night all... please pray for sunshine and smooth roads tomorrow!

Thursday 15th November 2012

Another tough wake up this morning, which was briefly brightened when Polly brought me tea in bed.. unfortunately that cup of tea was swiftly followed by two more which meant it wasn't only the boys who struggled with wee stops.

Polly and I then performed cooking duties for the team, whilst the guys from Big Buddha watched on!  My poached eggs were a little substandard, but then again I was preoccupied fretting about the 41 miles we needed to cover.

The A-Team

It was a pretty slow start to the day, I don't think we actually managed to get going until about 10.30am, accompanied by our fabulous host, Tim, from Rural Roosts and Adrian the biker with Emma the camerawomen riding backwards!  We decided not to try to ride down the lane in to Rural Roosts as we were all likely to wreck our tyres on the gravel... so the boys decided to travel in A-team style in the back of the van with the doors open.

As we left Rural Roosts we were all a bit disappointed not to be staying longer and enjoying the facilities... but I think there may be a team plus spouses reunion there at some point in the future!

Nerves of steel

Tim was a little bit of a pro cyclist but he was along for the first half of the ride to show his support, and he did a great job of leading from the back and making me feel better!!!  Steve and I did our bit for Emma on the camera but seven miles before lunch she did tell us off for talking too much! 

But in all honesty it was a tough day and I was flagging... and the souper noodles for lunch did little to improve my spirits, they really are only for students aren't they?!

Big Buddha wanted a quick interview with us behind the bushes and nearly caught my Dad short on camera having a quick comfort break... but luckily he avoided that and ran away!

There it is...... head for it shall we?

After lunch I tried to motivate myself but the grey skies kept me feeling grey and when faced with a couple of hills about five miles in, I did have a mini break down.  One of those moments where I sat on my bike thinking that there was no point carrying on, no matter whether I make it to the end of the challenge or not, I will never get my girls back  I can't get the one thing I want.  But Steve rallied me along, and the sun broke through the clouds as if Hattie & Flic were will me along to, so I cycled on sobbing to myself... but I did it, and the all of the boys helped.

Quite a moment

It was only another five or 10 miles in that we could see the Humber bridge and the sun really began to shine.  We had all been looking forward to riding over the bridge so it was quite a motivator really.  Knowing we were getting close was great until Steve struggled with the directions and seemed to be taking us ever further from the bridge... we made him stop eventually and we turned round to cycle towards the bridge instead!  We did get there and managed to find the pedestrian side that was open.  The sun shone and we all felt amazing riding over this incredible structure - I don't think any of us ever imagined we would ride over the Humber bridge - but we have done.

Ouch my knee!

As we approached the end of the ride we spotted Emma with a camera and managed to avoid running her over, but some how we did end up with a pile up and Andy on the floor... rather than helping him up and making sure he was ok, Steve's first thought was to take a quick picture so I thought I would share it with you too!  After this we headed to the most unimpressive Humber Bridge tourist information office and then wound our way through Hessle and Hull until we spotted Asda in the distance.

For once the support team had arrived first and we rode in to a heroes welcome.. balloons, cheering and chocolate.  The lovely Susie from the store had provided sweets, energy drinks and a great collecting pitch right outside the door, she even had hugs for each of us and offered to make the boys coffee!  We were overwhelmed by her support and suddenly felt like so many of the days woes had melted away.  

Leaving the boys outside, Donna and I went in store to pack bags for shoppers and see if we could get a few more donations.  It was hard as people wanted to know why we were doing the fundraising, so telling my story in 30 seconds without crying became a bit of an art, until one lady asked how far I was and said that as it was only five and a half months it was no where near as bad as nine months... I didn't really know what to say to that so I just carried on packing bags.  One chap did come through with six bottles of champagne which I thought was brilliant... even better when I realised that they were only £10 a bottle, needless to say Donna and I availed of the offer and have four bottles chilling in the van!

Tonight we are staying at the Travelodge in Hull which is not exactly luxurious and even charged us £10 to check some bags in to the room at 2pm as that was an early check in.  But given we were supposed to be camping we are just grateful for a shower and a bed.  We dined at ASK (all of us except my Dad who opted for an evening in front of the tv with a bottle of Ernst and Julio Gallo!) and Justin decided that a bowl of pasta or a pizza would not suffice so ordered one of each - the waitress thought he was having her on!

Right I am reliably informed by my husband that tomorrow is going to be a long and crappy ride, but the good news is we have Earl and Emma joining us and bringing lunch, so I will have another woman to talk to AND they will save me from souper noodles! Oh p.s. only 92 miles to go people!!

Friday 16^th November 2012

After being rudely awakened at 6am this morning by a her of buffalo taking an aerobics class in the bedroom above ours in the Travelodge, 7.30am came around all too quick, but in fairness I was quite pleased to be told by the alarm that I needed to get out of the lumpy bed!  After a slightly sleepless night, as I was convinced the van was going to be stolen from the Hull back street it was parked on, I was glad to open the blinds and see Big Blue Stan the van was still there in one piece.

Steve wasn’t feeling too chipper this morning as he was very worried that the route we had planned was going to take us down some mud track via farmer Giles somewhere in the middle of south Yorkshire… so we headed off to breakfast and took the laptop with us to try to re-jig the route.  As we looked at the map we realised our original route zig-zagged around most of Yorkshire before ending up in York so we decided that the A1079 was a far easier option.  When all the boys finally turned up for breakfast (I think there had been a sleepless night in that room too, but that was more down to some snoring than van robbers) we fed the parking meters, tried to get our £10.00 early check-in fee back from the receptionist and had hugs with Earl and Emma as they arrived. 

We stocked up on the all important mini mars bars, grumbled about the weather and laughed at Jay and Earl who insisted on riding in only shorts in the freezing (but technically actually 10 degrees) fog and mist.  Then set off following the A1079 which was to be our friend for the day; I am pleased to report that the A1079 is far better than the A15 although it is pretty full of pot holes at the Hull and, it could do with a few repairs! 

As we rode off, I began my usual cycle ride ponderings which can be dangerous as I am left with nothing but my own thoughts for hours at a time.  First ponderings were about Ken Smith Way in Beverley which we cycled past a few miles in… I spent all day wondering whether it was in fact named after the one and only QVC loving, bull dog gnome collecting Cllr Kenneth Smith of Huddersfield… but sadly not.  Then I noticed that the speed cameras around these parts are all numbered, one we passed today was 925 which I think is the hallmark for silver.  It is amazing how the mind wanders isn't it.  Another notable part of the otherwise somewhat uneventful ride was the sheer quantity of road kill of all varieties,  you wonder whether another pheasant, rat, fox or badger is out there somewhere missing its friend, parent or child and whether they have animal signs up saying how many road accidents have taken place that year.

The gang of York

Anyway, before you all think I have lost my mind, the cycling wasn't too bad today in spite of the weather.  Steve and I had a good natter with Earl and Emma and Earl expressed his disgust at the route not having pre-arranged pub stops.  After a few hilly bits we were pleased to see that at around 18 miles in to the ride the route got really smooth and slightly down hill and I had great fun pedalling fast the whole way down, Steve couldn't catch me and Justin didn't actually overtake me for once.  So when we made it to the lunch stop in a garden centre in Shiptonthorpe, where the lovely staff allowed us to use their car park  I was on a little bit of a high.  That soon became quite a chilly high as we experienced true Yorkshire November weather at its better – luckily team Dolly (that is Donna and Polly) had a great big pan of Heinz Tomato soup warming for us and there wash a great selection of sarnies, pork pie and sausage rolls from Emma’s mum (thank you Emma’s mum!).  We tried to make it a quick stop as it was too cold to hang about, but we did have time for Dad to take a few more unflattering shots of me – lycra really isn't my things is it Dad?!

The rest of the ride seemed to fly by, with the only interest being added by Emma turning the air blue on the odd occasion that a driver got too close to us or indicated his dislike of cyclists with his horn…. In all honesty there was a point I thought she was going to hunt one driver down and try to stick her bike where the sun don’t  shine!

Just needed to warm our hands up

We made it to Asda in York in no time, but unfortunately it is Children in Need today and the Asda contact we had didn’t realise we were wanting to collect in store – but she did offer us a £20 Asda voucher which we used for Champagne for the tombola event tomorrow.  Given we couldn't collect the team decided it was time to go for a debrief session in Starbucks to warm up – we then decided we hadn't really cycled enough today so we should get back on our backs and do another 6 miles to the hotel… that was until we walked outside, saw it was raining and ditched that idea!

What Kingsize? Me?

The Holiday Inn in York were really lovely and put us all up for free, they even sorted us a special rate on an extra room for the extra riders arriving tonight ready for tomorrow’s ride.  But really all the boys wanted was for us to get in the van and head to the Toby Carvery – and boy did we make the most of it; there was certainly no disappointment from the ranks as the roast was huge and delicious.  The manager even gave us a donation when we explained what we were doing.

The “press office” got to work and has interviews, TV news and all sorts lined up for our arrival tomorrow, and we were able to speak to the lovely Amy from the Save the Friarage campaign who called to update us on the plans for tomorrow – we are all getting very excited about our arrival in Northallerton! Less than 40 miles to go team!

Generous gift from Louise 

I thought the story of the day would end there, but as we got out of the van in the hotel car park a woman pulled up in her car and asked if we were the cycle team – we thought we had ourselves a crazy stalker but in fact it was Louise from BBC Radio York who had been to the hotel to drop us off chocolate, champagne and a donation for the collection boxes.  It really was another one of those heart warming moments where we realised how wonderful people can be.  Thank you Louise!





Saturday 17th November 2012

Wow what a day, started with trepidation and ended in elation.  I have to say when I woke up this morning I was scared about how the day was going to be and how I would survive the emotion of the last day of our ride, I couldn't even stomach a full breakfast so settled on fresh fruit and toast.... not a patch on the full fry ups which soon came back to bite me later!!!

We met up with Paul Bolton and Craig Wooders who had trekked up to York from the South East on public transport supported only by pasta salad and a case of beer to give us a moral boost for our last day.  We prepared their mountain bikes and provided them with Bornsilently jackets to protect them from the Yorkshire drizzle as they weren't suitably attired (although Paul looked quite special in his fleecy skiing long johns!)

What a day?!

 We had a nice ride through the centre of York, past the Minster, which Justin is convinced looked very Roman but we are pretty sure it is Gothic!  We then headed out to the surrounding countryside and the sun began to break through the cloud and the rain eased.  The scenery heading in to North Yorkshire is really beautiful, and as the sun began to really shine it felt like our girls were guiding us home.

Unfortunately Craig managed to damage his knee about five miles in to the ride, but he battled on pedalling with one leg and refusing any help.  All was fine until he got tempted by a chip van and stopped.... we flew past him and he followed but thought we went straight on when in fact we went left... so the first time we lost a team member was on the last day!  Nobody realised until he had gone quite a long way in the wrong direction (he seemed to pedal faster when he was on the wrong track) then poor Steve had to track him down and nearly suffered a coronary in the process!

Team Photo!!

As we didn't have a lunch stop today we made sure we had plenty of mars bar stops to keep us going, but I soon ran out of chocolates and had to raid Steve's secret stash! Paul's salesman techniques came to the fore, at any possible opportunity he was trying to convince people to sponsor us... I am surprised he didn't have business cards with the text donate number on!

Are you sure it is this way?

It wasn't long after finding Craig that Steve's navigation skills seemed to be suffering from lack of lunch and me forgetting my trusted laminated cards.  He took us down a dead end, which I picked up on and dragged him back from but then in a spectacular display of the blind leading the blind he took us down a lane which led in to a footpath, stood and looked at his maps and told us that he was sorry but he wasn't wrong.... so off we went on our road bikes down what can only be described as a mud bath!  Paul and Craig were delighted to finally have the right bikes for the job!  After trying and failing to use Craig's sat nav, Andy found a farmer who sent us through his field, over a bridge, up a track and on to a lane where we finally found a signpost to Thirsk!

I have to admit part of me thought that our navigational issues were a little bit down to Hattie & Flic who caused some entertainment with our sat nav when returning from their funeral!  Our girls have had a habit of playing tricks on us!

We made it!

Feeling muddy but confident we were back on track we got pedalling again as we were still about 16 miles away and needed to be in Northallerton in half an hour.... needless to say we were late!  Once we got to Thirsk I started to feel emotional, as that is where we bought the blanket our girls were wrapped in for their funeral.  Since we were last there a shop had opened called Harriets, we just need one called Felicity's now too!

For the last 8 miles I finally found my cycling legs and managed to set a half decent pace for my ride in to Northallerton - unfortunately Paul and Craig on their mountain bikes and with only three legs between them couldn't quite keep up and, as we were already late, we had to make a call to ride on ahead to see our welcoming party.  And what a welcoming party it was!  As we headed down the high street together as a team that had spent seven days in the saddle together we could hear cheering and I think we call got a little emotional - some of the boys might have shed a little tear with the elation of it all.

We all shed a little tear

There was such a wonderful group of people waiting for us, family, friends and strangers who were all cheering for us for the challenge we had done.  So many faces full of love and pride.  After hugs from the family, there was a very special lady I spotted, she shall remain nameless on this blog but H was the amazing woman who offered Steve and I such incredible support in July when we were faced with losing our daughters.  She, along with her colleagues, did everything in her power to make sure that our biggest nightmare was as bearable as possible.  Seeing her today was so emotional, I was full of love for her and so grateful for everything she did.  We had a hug and cried together and for a moment I forgot about all the excitement around me.  But the moment couldn't last long as I was soon being sprayed by champagne and shaking hands with the mayor of Northallerton who had come out to meet us with all of his regalia.  The there was hug after hug after hug with the committee of the Save the Friarage campaign group, they did us so proud and we really wish them the best of luck for their campaign.

A proud moment outside the Town Hall

Paul and then Craig soon arrived in to town to a hero's welcome and joined us for champers and photos....oh and of course cake!  Actually not just cake, trolly loads of cake, chocolate, vanilla, carrot and cupcakes which were quickly wolfed down by the hungry riders!

After some champers and tea and lovely chats with some wonderful people we decided to let the welcome party head home to their families. Whilst the team headed to the pub for a beer before Steve and I went to see the other wonderful midwives at the hospital where our daughters were born.  We were touched that the lady who delivered our daughters was even there to see us... and the team had a wonderful congratulations sign and cake for us!  I can't say it was easy going back to the ward, walking in to the hospital brought back so many memories of losing our precious girls.  The corridors and rooms just reminded me of the pain I felt that weekend, but also the fantastic support we received at that time.

The happy patient!

After a cup of tea and a lovely chat with these wonderful women we had a photograph with the team for the hospital magazine and learnt that the midwives at the Friarage are very well connected!  We soon got offered a deal at the Red Chilli curry house we booked for dinner and an offer of breakfast at the wonderful Root's farm shop for Sunday morning (if you are ever in the area we can certainly recommend their breakfasts and cakes!)

After a delicious curry and some good chats, we retired to our luxury hostel bunk bed accommodation for a good nights sleep, but not until nurse Polly had fixed up Craig's poorly knee.... not entirely sure whether the sling and foil blanket were strictly necessary, but they certainly put a smile on Craig's face!



Sunday 18th November 2012

As we were still in Yorkshire this morning I decided that you deserved one last day of this blog!! But it will be a short one.

This morning Steve and I crawled out of our bunk beds early and ventured outside in to a frosty November morning in Yorkshire to drive over to Boltby to pay our little girls a visit.  We couldn't leave the county without seeing them.

It was a special morning and everything looked beautiful - seeing them really brought home the reasons for our amazing ride and the money we have worked to raise.  We know that the team members all have their reasons for wanting to take part, but Steve, myself and our little girls are grateful to every person who rode with us, whether that be for one day or for 325 miles, we are thankful to all those who turned out to support us, bake cake for us, bring food for us and to those who have sponsored, encouraged and offered accommodation.  Without all of you we would not have been able to take this journey and find some peace with our loss and find some hope for the future.

Our daughters will always be a part of our lives and their story has affected so many people around the world.  We are home now and have returned with our hearts full of the love that we have been shown by so many people both those we know and those we don't.  Thank you for helping us heal and allowing to break the taboo of still birth and miscarriage.  Watch this space for news of our next project and the total of our fundraising efforts.

Bethany
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