I'm a double cancer survivor, cyclist and walker who does various challenges for different charities, mainly cancer-related.

In 2016 I climbed every single 'Birkett' in the Lake District - all 542 fells over 1,000' within the National Park, including all 214 Wainwrights. I've also done a three-week cycle tour of Tasmania in February 2015 and amongst other things, I've cycled from Land's End to John o'Groats (2003), Rotterdam to Lemvig (Denmark) (2005), walked the Pennine Way (2008) completed (my first) ascent of all 214 'Wainwrights' in the Lake District in only 55 days (2009), cycled 4,500 miles around the coast of Great Britain (2011), cycled all 42 of the accessible Western Isles of Scotland in under a month (2012), twice abseiled 230 ft from the top of The Big One in Blackpool, cycled the WWI Western Front from London to Compiegne via Ypres and Arras (2014), cycled 750 miles in the Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton (2014), done a bit of sky-diving and cycled Australia's Great Ocean Road - just before lockdown in 2020.

Altogether I've raised over £120,000 for my charities including The Christie, Cancer Research UK, the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, and ABF (The Soldiers' Charity) and I was mightily chuffed to receive the British Empire Medal in the 2014 New Year's Honours List.

I'm a Rotarian and give illustrated talks about my adventures in exchange for a donation to charity, so if you're looking for a speaker leave me a message. I am also Event Organiser for the Ribble Valley Ride Cycle Sportive, to be held this year on Sunday 5 September 2021 - more details at www.ribblevalleyride.org

You can also follow me on Twitter - @CancerBikeMan and on Facebook - just search for Bill Honeywell

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research, whilst The Rosemere does fantastic work for patients in Lancashire and South Cumbria.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Day 2 - Continued

I'll keep trying...

I followed the coast road from Ulverston to Barrow in Furness and found myself cycling up a Dutch Mountain - or in other words, into the teeth of a headwind.  It seemed to take forever, but once into Barrow I soon found Furness Abbey, and a bit further down the road the van was waiting with butties and coffee.  Val and Alan had parked in front of a house where the owner was mowing his lawn and he came across to... make a donation to Cancer Research UK! What a nice chap!  Richard had made arrangements to be picked up and taken home later in the day.

One of the main items of interest seems to be the tracker which I am carrying.  A lot of people have been logging on to http://www.fleetsmartlive.com/ and watching progress 'live'.  We lost the signal a few times but it's still been pretty good.  If you want to try it, you'll need to log on with the user name Honeywell1 and password Honeywell1 (case-sensitive) - then click on the Bike1 details.

In order to improve the service, Alex from Fleetsmart drove all the way up from Wigan to Haverigg tonight to change the SIM card in the tracker, and to provide a bigger battery - so hopefully tomorrow it will be even better.

Back to the ride. The sun shone after Barrow and I carried on through Dalton in Furness to Foxfield and Duddon Bridge, then on a very undulating narrow road and then.... five miles of rough track!  Not suited to my road bike!  It looked OK on the map, but by the time I got there it was too much trouble to turn back so I carried on until I reached Millom, after which it was only another mile to our night's stop at Haverigg.

So - another 77 miles on the clock.  About the same tomorrow up the West Cumbria coast line.  I'm currently trying to remember whether it's possible to walk or cycle over the railway viaduct at Ravenglass, so that could be interesting!

There’s a story from the Great Depression about the man who threw himself off the top of the Empire State Building. As he passed an open window on the 11th floor someone inside heard him say “So far so good!”
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1 comment:

  1. Matt Khan-Dyer12 May 2011 at 13:15

    Do you know what Bill, I am absolutely captivated by your adventure. I would loved to have seen the faces of the cycling couple, jaw dropping I would think. The tracker is working really well now and am amazed how much ground you are covering.
    You have been an absolute inspiration and I am now thinking of an end to end. Brilliant.

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