https://imperialcharity.enthuse.com/pf/ian-derry – Once again I am joining the most inspiring group of people to raise essential funds to support Hammersmith Hospital Blood Cancer Unit.
Along with 30 others we are cycling from Aix-les-Bains to Nice between the 8th and 15th June 2025.
That’s 8 days, 1000 kilometres and over 18,000 metres of climbing.
The FireFlies rides have been going for 25 years so in this anniversary year we collectively want to make it a special one. Over those years with various global rides they have collectively raised nearly 5 million pounds for blood cancer charities and cycled over 1.2 million kilometres.
It’s not cheap to join this ride and it takes a lot of time and dedication to train for months beforehand but it’s doesn’t even compare to what having blood cancer must be like. The motto is ‘for those that suffer we ride’.
We take in some of the most iconic climbs the Alps has to offer. Many are ridden by the professionals in the Tour de France, the Col du Galibier, Col de la Madeleine and the historic Alpe d’huez.
Last year in The Pyrenees there were days where I didn’t think I would finish but testament to the camaraderie and support of this group I did, their mantra is nobody gets left behind. At times it was emotional, there was more than one moment when I tried to speak but no words would come out.
I know how tough things are right now, trust me I have had better years but we still need fight on to help the research into these awful diseases and hopefully save lives now and in the future.
I’m Ian and I am going to be doing the Fireflies 2025 ride in June. It will be the second time I’ve done this ride. I did it for the first time last year and I despite struggling with it absolutely loved it. My wife could see the elation on my face. you know, she knew that I’d just done something incredible and she said to me, “You must do this next year.” And so, here we are a year later and um training has been going well and hoping I can be better than I was last year and that we can all as a group raise the kind of funds that are necessary to fight this dreadful disease. Now, we’re not doing it for fun. doing it for a reason. We’re doing it to raise money for cancer. You know, my dad died of cancer. So many people I know died of cancer. My son’s best friend died of cancer. And you kind of think to yourself, you know, I can’t do this. I can’t get to the top of this mountain. And then you think to yourself, there’s something inside you that says, no, no, no, no, you can. And that keeps you going. you know the ability to we are privileged because we have the opportunity to do this. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to do this. A lot of people are not here with us now. And so each kilometer that goes by, no matter how hard it is, no matter how hard it is, it’s you can’t stop. You cannot fail. It’s you’re doing it for those people that you’ve lost and this whole thing with the firefighters is a group response to a problem i.e. cancer and so us coming together whether it’s emotionally whether it’s physically helps us as individuals but helps the wider world as well. It means something to the people that have benefited from the research that has been done because of the money raised by the ride. So, it’s kind of, you know, I’m quite proud to say I’m member of the Fireflies cycling club, you know, every little helps. It can just be £5, but just if you could, you know, literally I would say to anybody, if you can just give us anything that will go into the pot, join everybody else’s, so we all get this big pot that can help. We will beat cancer. We go one step towards beating cancer. Then you know these thieves everything’s appreciated.