Hi Everyone,

In November 2010 Cois Beukes lost his 10 month battle with a rare and aggressive form of Cancer known as Sarcoma. Cois’ passing at 35 years of age is a tragic loss to all that knew him and he leaves behind a loving wife Rachel and a beautiful, fun loving daughter Naomi. It was a very sad time for us at Country Kids to loose a parent so suddenly. Everything was put into perspective very quickly.

To pay tribute to Cois, in aid of Marie Curie Belfast, Rachel and a group of 29 friends have decided to embark on a charity ride from Cardiff to Belfast. The Cois Beukes 3 Nations Cycle challenge will cover 350 miles over 4 days through Wales, England and Ireland. The journey will mirror that of Cois when he first moved from South Africa to Cardiff in 1997. Two of the four days will be spent cycling nearly 100 miles per day through the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia national parks. Areas that are believed to have the odd hill!

During training at Whiterock

Jess from the toddler room signed up straight away.  I chatted about it with Ian, whose reaction was you will never do it.  Of course anyone who knows me and my stubborn nature will know that was it….. I signed up without even having ridden a bike let alone done any exercise since Lucy was born.  First 5 miles on my mountain bike…. well what can I say, reality hit and a slight bit of panic.  Jess suddenly had a cycling buddy and we began training with the help of another parent, Gerry.

Today as I write this I am still panicking and unsure if I will complete this massive challenge that we have set ourselves.  One thing is I won’t give up easily.   We will soon find out.

Thank you to all who have sponsored us so far.  It is greatly appreciated and is for such a worthwhile charity.

Donations can still be accepted online www.justgiving.com/coiscycle

We are going to keep in touch via a daily blog so keep logging on from Thursday 26th May 2011 to follow us on our journey.

Lisa XXX