As a family, the news that Annie was suffering from NPC filled us with a mind numbing despair. Our first reaction was of disbelief and to an extent denial.  As a father I felt (and still feel) helpless in that role of protector which a dad holds. There is no way I can protect my lovely daughter from the disease.  I can only support her, her brother Robert and Mum Kait, and try to make her life as happy as possible.

I had spent hours looking at the websites to get information about NP and I had noticed links to fundraising but wrapped up in my grief I ignored them - isn't everybody a little charity jaded nowadays?

Sam, one of the mums from Annie's school asked us if she could hold a coffee morning to raise funds - she was so grateful when we said yes that we felt very humbled.  She along with family and friends had a great morning and raised over £500.

So I got to thinking about how I could do something to raise both funds and awareness of the disease and decided to 'do' a sponsored Land's End to John O' Groat's ride. I love motorcycling, from my first moped aged 16 in 1978 I've ridden many many miles. My favourite bike is a 650 Triumph made in 1971 which I first bought in 1979 and I'd always had it in the back of my mind to ride end to end in just one day on this bike.  Trouble was it was languishing in the shed with a severely damaged engine, so I first had to repair that.

With Robert's help the engine was soon removed from the frame and early in December parts were sent off for repair and machining with the assurance received that I'd get them back in 6 weeks time.

I started to spread the word amongst friends and colleagues and pencilled in Easter time to make the ride.  Kait's brother in law offered to create a website (and a brilliant job he did too) and to my surprise a few people asked to join the ride.  Phil and Matt are friends from the Laverda Owner's Club, Chris and Jacko friends from Worcester and Taff is a work colleague. This was brilliant but did mean that the date for setting off became inflexible which became a problem when the engine parts weren't ready until early March.  Never mind, 3 weeks to reassemble and run in seemed possible and I did indeed manage to run in for 700 miles prior to the 5 friends arriving at our home to set off in convoy to St. Just where we stayed overnight before setting off from Land's End at 09:30 the next morning.

Setting off I felt quite emotional, both the undertaking and the reason for the ride, and also the depth of kindness and support from many people came together to make me feel very sad but also uplifted - if human kindness was enough we wouldn't have a problem.

Kait had contacted our local newspaper which ran an article about the ride, following on from this a friend from old made contact and offered a donation of £1000 to get us under way, I'm not ashamed to say I cried after putting the phone down.  I also wrote to Classic Bike Magazines and to Railway newspapers who all gave coverage and support (one editor sent a personal donation).

The bike seemed to be going well, the weather was coolish but dry and I'm told I started to increase the pace a bit (vigorously denied).  Just past Bodmin the engine suddenly cut out - no great mechanical noises but an exploratory push on the kickstart felt very hard and it wasn't going to restart.  I felt awful and that I'd let everyone down, but following a suggestion from Jacko I phoned a colleague who came over and collected the Triumph and I rode pillion behind Jacko to Exeter where I changed to my modern (and ultimately dependable) Suzuki.

This had delayed us by about an hour and we were due to meet press and staff at Worcester ambulance station at the next rest stop so we had to press on as fast as was reasonable. The M5 was very busy but traffic was moving until near Gloucester, here we met traffic which had come to a standstill. Riding between lanes of stationary cars is dangerous and takes a lot of concentration, so by the time we had cleared this and got to Worcester we were fairly ragged. We got just the uplift that we needed with a superb buffet lunch laid on by the staff at the Ambulance Station following interviews with the local paper and radio.  We would have liked to have stayed longer but we had lost time to make up.

The next leg of 99 miles was to Lymm services. Traffic on both the M5 and M6 was very heavy and frequently stopped, as we approached junction 20 where the services are, the warning signs were telling of congestion ahead and we could see traffic at a standstill further north as we rode over junction 20 to the services.  This was a very low point for us all, we were still behind time and the services were poor and noisy, daylight was fading and, at 350 miles ridden we were not yet halfway.  We set off again- probably all of us wishing we weren't doing this.

Traffic was poor until the Thelwell viaduct, then things cleared up and the scenery became interesting as we rode beside the Pennines. When darkness fell it became quite cold and we were pleased to reach Southwaite services.  Still behind time we took time to rest and eat and set off in a slightly better frame of mind. We'd decided to change from the planned route and to use as much Motorway as possible to regain time (and there wasn't much point in taking the scenic route in darkness) so our next stop was Hamilton services Glasgow.  We spread out a bit all riding at our own pace and this was more relaxing.  The services were small but quiet and the coffee was good, we felt better.

Broxden services were at Perth, I hadn't been able to find out much about them and was unsure what to expect, it was basically a filling station with a coffee machine but here we were met by Sammy Graham who had read about the ride on the internet and had ridden over and waited for over an hour until 1am to greet us and give us a donation of £10 - another kind person bringing a lump to our throats. We felt uplifted by his kindness.

Talking to my fellow riders since, the next stage of the ride was the most memorable for us all. The A9 from Perth to Inverness used to be very twisty and loved by motorcyclists.  Now it has been straightened and improved and spoilt for biking by day, but we set off at about 2am and were grateful for the straighter road.  The moon was bright and there was a chill Northerly headwind, sometimes driving some light sleety drizzle before it.  Every few miles we would pass an artic lorry and many were pulled over to rest in laybys.  We could look down on villages and see lights in windows but there was no welcoming light anywhere on the roadside, the road seemed to climb for mile after mile and we could see snow on the peaks of the mountains to either side of us, and we could smell the pine forests - it was quite surreal.

Dropping down to Inverness soon brought us back to reality, searching the web the only rest place I had been able to find open was a 24hr Tesco's.  Here the staff made nothing of us taking over the seating area next to the Cafeteria (closed worse luck).  We'd caught up some time and had an hour or so to rest up there until dawn. We bought some self heating cans of coffee (horrible) and cat napped a bit then set off again not waiting for sunrise.

Somewhere near Brora, we stopped in a layby and watched the sun rise over the sea, we were cold, tired and hungry but with about 800 miles ridden we were now ahead of time and could believe that we would actually achieve the ride in 24 hrs.

Stopping for fuel in Wick we were directed to the harbour where we found an open Cafe - hurray! Some warm drinks and food perked us up no end and the last few miles to John O' Groat's passed really quickly.  We arrived at 09:00 after a ride of 23 1/2 hours none of us too worse for wear, I'd like to thank Matt, Chris, Jacko, Andy, and Phil for being great friends and riding companions and for helping to raise over £7000 for NPDG

By doing this sponsored ride I have found out that there are some really good people out there and I feel better for having done something, however small and insignificant in the greater picture of things, towards helping others who are affected by this terrible illness.