After much hand wringing and ponderance I have decided to ride my next challenge for the nurses who looked after Mum during her and our darkest days, The Lawrence House Nurses of Chipping Norton.

The Lawrence House Nursing team provides specialist end of life nursing care, free of charge in the Chipping Norton area of Oxfordshire to those who's wish is to die at home with family and reassurance. They are a beautiful set of volunteers who juggle full time jobs with caring for your loved ones, in this case my Mum...just because they want to.

Since Mum died I have been agonising about doing this ride in her memory. I didn't want to burden myself or my friends Toby and Lewis with too much emotion as this is our biggest challenge yet. But I am now sure that should I need it, that support will be there.

The Marmotte is a brutal challenge centred around the small town of Le Bourg-D'Oisans in the French Alps. The ride is 174km with over 5000m of ascent. We will scale the cols of The  Glandon, The Telegraph and then on to the mighty Col du Galibier, at 2,645m high it is one of the highest paved roads in the Alps. We then decend back down to Le Bourg-D'Oisans for our final ascent to the Village of Alpe d'Huez, a really famous 1000m climb of 21 hairpin bends and severe gradients.

The ride is Saturday 2nd July and I will try to keep everyone posted as much as possible!

I am hoping that I can raise an amount that will go towards helping the nurses continue with their work and also to recompense in a small way the unbelievable effort they made.

Thanks for your generosity it will be appreciated beyond the normal, I guarantee it.

Dan xx

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marmotte

http://www.sportive.com/events/la-marmotte-2016-sportive/2015-07-04/841/cycling

http://www.lawrencehomenursing.org/

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