Welcome to Team Bygate, raising money for the Great North Air Ambulance in memory of the wonderful and amazing Chris ‘Iron-Ultra Man’ Bygate.  

Chris was quiet simply awesome.  He was charismatic, caring and fun-loving who died doing what he loved with the person he had planned to spend the rest of his life with.  Chris was an inspiration to all and truly lived life to its max.  He made sure his life was not a spectator sport and was forever challenging himself time after time.  Whether this was through sporting events such as rowing or triathlon or climbing in the Alps or UK. 

His generosity and compassion continued after his death when he gave the gift of life to at least 2 other people through organ donation which had always been his wish.  However his lungs were too awesome (too big) to be donated which I know would have amused him!

So in true Chris spirit, myself and with some of Chris’ friends have set ourselves the challenge of completing the Outlaw Half Triathlon.  This consists of a 1.2mile open water swim, 56mile bike and 13.1mile run.  And when we (hopefully) cross the finish line, we will know that we have only completed half of what Chris did!  However since most of us have not swam since we were kids, and some of us even didn’t own a bike at the time of signing up, I hope you agree that we have set ourselves quite a challenge!

In addition to the Outlaw Half, there other challenges now being taken up including a 2.5km swimathon, various half marathons, the High Peak marathon and a London to Paris cycle.  Again all of these are not easy feats and great challenges.

The Great North Air Ambulance were actually the first on site and although not the mountain rescue managed to reach us on the crag when the helicopter had to land quite a distance away.  I cannot express my relief on seeing these medics arrive and will forever be in their debt for everything they did to help Chris.  I was unaware, like most people that the Air Ambulance service is a charity and needs the support of the public to help keep the service available.  Each helicopter costs approximately £1.2 million to run and they receive no government or lottery assistance.  So please dig deep and donate now to this very worthwhile charity.

Remember: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never share them with anyone or send you unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity.  They'll make sure Gift Aid (an additional 28%) is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer, too.  That means more money goes to the charity, faster, with JustGiving.