Eight keen bikers, eight European countries, 11 days and 1,900 miles in a road trip that raised more than £500 for our patient care.
Friends from the Silver Fox Men’s Football Team at Westfield took on the European challenge in memory of team member Mark Bradbury’s wife Zoe, who was our patient as she faced the end of her fight against cancer just before Christmas last year.
Setting off from Mark’s home in Owlthorpe, the team headed for Folkstone and the Channel Tunnel to Calais and then rode through France to the Mosel in Germany and then on to Italy, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Holland.
And even extreme wet weather as they drove through France did nothing to dampen spirits.
“One of the lads broke down when his bike got waterlogged and I fell off twice in the mountains because of leaves and the rain but we all got through it in one piece,” said Mark.
Back home, all supporters of the bikers had to do was make a £5 donation to guess exactly how far their friends would have travelled before they were back in Sheffield.
“Zoe spoke so highly of St Luke’s – she’d attended sessions at Ecclesall Road South, she’d been an in patient for a while and at the end we had the Community Team support us as Zoe said she wanted to die at home,” said Mark.
“She never stopped living life to the full right until the end and I know she’d have been really pleased that we did the bike ride in her memory.
“It was all a bit spur of the moment – we only arranged things two days before we set off – but it was well worth the effort.”