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Josie – a story for us all

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A charity bike ride that meant saying goodbye to her beloved mum… not your average title for promoting a fundraiser, but then Josie’s not your average girl. 

Promoting her fun and bubbly character to her friends and family on social networking site, Facebook and through word of mouth, mother of one Josie Brown took it upon herself to do something great for the World Cancer Research Fund and cycle from the city of London to Paris, France.  And that she did last month despite summing the idea up in one word, mad.

“I chose this particular charity because the WCRF UK are committed to preventing cancer and having known many people who have suffered from this awful disease, I wanted to do my part for charity”, Josie explains.

Josie’s plans to take part in such an activity began when she came across a poster for a bike ride last summer at her work place.  “I was interested but put it to the back of my mind”, Josie admitted.  Then tragedy struck her family and Josie was given the further motivation that she needed.  “My mother’s best friend was diagnosed with T Cell Lymphoma (cancer) and I decided I would take up the challenge for her.  She backed me 100%.  Her exact words being ‘anything to do with cancer I’m all for’”.  

With a challenging goal of a minimum of £1300 to be raised in order to complete her mission, Josie was persistent in reminding everyone to donate as much or little as they could and gave regular updates of her sponsors and training progress.  She even posted regular status updates and pictures from training so everyone could see for themselves just how seriously she was taking it all. 

No doubt training for such a big task was extremely strenuous, so where does one even start to get mentally and physically prepared for an extreme bike ride?  Though there were a few times where injuries and tiredness took over, Josie still fought back that bit stronger each time, representing her strong and determined character through and through.

“My training consisted of weight training on my legs, spinning classes and of course cycling as much as I could.  To be honest, I believe that I could have prepared a lot more for the event as it was very challenging”, Josie said.  She continues: “I found the whole event very physically and mentally challenging. There were days when the pain was almost unbearable but I got through it by thinking of Kathleen”.

So how was the big event?  I bet you’re all wondering.  Well the first day Josie and company set off at 7am with Kent being the first destination on the map.  Josie said: “Our deadline was to get to Dover for 16:30.  Kent was awful.  The majority of the ride was up hill”.   It was due to these harsh riding conditions why Josie and the majority of the other 86 riders gained some form of injury.  “As soon as we reached Dover, I jumped off my bike, went over to a pub and had a large glass of JD.”  True Josie form that is right there.

So 95 miles of riding was now complete and this was all in just one days riding.  “When we got to Calais, we rode another 8 miles to our hotel.  I was absolutely knackered!”  The second day meant another early start for the group and at 7am they headed for Beauvais.  “Riding was not too bad but it was still quite hilly.  I was in a lot of pain from the day before and this journey was 75 miles.”  The scenery on this day proved to serve as motivation for Josie as she describes it as being very “picturesque”.

The third day arrived and they were on their way to Abbeville countryside.  Being here meant the next step was Paris and they were nearly at the end of their journey.  On the fourth day, Josie and the group arrived in Paris.

“This was amazing.  We all wore blue t-shirts saying, ‘I rode from London to Paris", Josie joyously says, and even talks about traffic stopping for them to honour their great achievements.  She continues: “We even rode through the Eiffel Tower and had pictures taken by it”.

Unfortunately Kathleen passed away in February of this year before she could see Josie take up her challenge.  “When I finished, the first thing that went through my head was no more pain”, Josie said.  “The second thing that went through my head was ‘this was all for you Kathleen’, as I had done it all for her.”

Today Josie is still ecstatic that she completed her challenge and raised so much money for a well and truly great cause and memory of an even greater person.  Although the experience was a physically draining one, she still plans to complete another bike ride for the same charity in the near future.

“I am planning on doing another bike ride next year, this time to Amsterdam.”  It seems there’s no stopping this girl.  Three cheers for Josie!

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