Longest Day Challenge 2023

I've wanted to participate in The Longest Day Challenge for years and this year it's going to happen. Simon Hindley arranged for me to get in touch with the organisers, a bike was sourched and the target was there.

Cancer is a horrible disease that has brought too much misery to me and too many people around me. I'm not a doctor, I can't make someone better or help in a practical sense. What I can do is give 5€ to the collector of KWF Kankerbestrijding / Dutch Cancer Society, but that doesn't go far enough for me. Money is and remains necessary and the fact that there are fundraisers in all sorts of places and by just as many different people is illustrative of this.

So is The Longest Day Challenge; on the longest day (21 June) from Land's End to John o' Groats, on a bike under £600, without using the motorway. 1000 miles/1600km in 24 hours. A nice day out on a motorcycle.. All this as a challenge to ask for sponsorship for charity. As a Dutchman it might be a bit strange that I would be doing this for a foreign charity, but half my social circle is in the UK and research certainly crosses borders.

I've been working on a bike since October last year and it was pretty much completely finished when the suggestion came that this thing might be "a little too mad". Sometime in March another bike was taken out of the mothballs and I started working with it.

A GSXF 1100 "Powerscreen" bought for 100€ (so about 550£ post-Brexit) and A LOT of work later it is freshy rebuilt on its new tires. The most legal motorcycle I've built, with the most amazing paint job (thanks to my favorite 5yr old)

The last things are done, it's just packing and I'll be on the boat on Saturday. At this point I have already raised £920 (plus £127 giftaid); REALLY a lot of money. I know there are still significant amounts on the way from friends/acquaintances/family/customers/suppliers so it will be even more!

If you donated; Thank you! Really, this is a big deal. If you feel inclined to help with my cause;

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/rene-efe

It is an English site and from the Netherlands (or anywhere else tbh) sometimes a bit awkward. If you can't figure it out, send me a message and I'll walk you through it.

Again, everyone who has already donated; Thank you thank you thank you, much appreciated.

(A plain translation of a dutch post I did on my FB)

 

Mississippi River Run