Cancer Research, Long Way Home 2010

[russt1969]

Hi all,

Many Thanks to Lesley for letting me post this here.
Myself (Russell Turner) & my long time buddy Chris Blanchard have both been affected by Cancer. Chris lost his father, in 2007 I lost my Mother in law and last year my Brother in law was diagnosed with Stomach & Bone Cancer.

Having known Chris since I was about 17 we were chatting about going on a touring holiday. This all ended up as "The Long Way Home" move over Ewan & Charlie.... We will be riding our motorbikes around England, Scotland, Wales then back to London. This should take us around two weeks at roughly 300 miles per day. We are going to try and raise as much money as possible for Cancer Research so please help us raise loads by donating on the Just Giving web site.

Just Giving Long Way Home 2010

If you do donate and are a Tax payer they can reclaim tax back so I think this is the best way to donate. Also any donations are 100% guaranteed to go to our chosen charity. Cancer Research.

You can also keep up to date with our progress at
Myspace

Any help or ideas please contact me (Russ) at longwayhome@ntlworld.com

The motorbikes we are going to be using are Honda Africa Twin's. XRV750's. All costs in our trip are coming out of our own pockets which is why we got these bikes. Good miles per gallon and they are supposed to be "bullet proof" I will keep you all informed.....



Many Thanks for reading this.
Best Wishes
Russ

[russt1969]

Hi all,
Just to let you know we've passed the £700 mark which is fantastic news for Cancer Research.
Also if your local to SW London listen out for us next year on Radio Jackie as they have offered to interview us
Anyways please spread the word of our trip and our just giving site.

Many Thanks
Russ

[russt1969]

Hi all,

An update for you.
£941.60

So what did I do to our £1000.00 target? Raised it another £250.00
If you have a Paypal account, Justgiving are now accepting that. So after you've had a little read on here get on there and have a look. The smallest amount you can donate is £2.00. Go one, dare you. 20 people at £2.00 is much better than 20 people thinking "Can't afford £10, £20...." £2.00 will be great. Every little helps. You can even be anonymous

All the best and thanks again for all your support.
Russ

[russt1969]

Hi all,

Just to keep you all up to date. We've got our "lift off" date, Saturday 7th August 2010. And our first day is going to be a bum killing one... 348 miles......... Should be fun though. Takes us to Northumberland.

Both bikes have been "played" with. Chris' one has nice new steering head bearings and mine has had the carbs sorted so now I should be getting about 170 miles to the tank.

Donations are up to £986.60 so again many thanks to those who've donated. And again, those who haven't.. You still got plenty of time to save up those copper's. Just giving's website will take £2.00 and upwards so don't be shy and donate £2.00 if you cant afford anymore. You can even do it annonymously. We've had 1 x £2.00 annon already, so thumbs up to them. Whoever they were

Thanks again

Take care.
Russ

[Plantmaster4000]

Wow this is truley an amazing cause on your part. I don't mean to just interject but what gave you the idea of raising money for such a great cause? I'm from the United States, but would I still be able to donate?

[russt1969]

Hi Plant Master,

There are so many Charities to choose from. They all do a great job. The reason I went with Cancer Research UK is because they are local to me and I've been shown around their Labs and have got to know their Local representative really well.

Many thanks for offering to donate I guess you should be able to. They accept credit cards and paypal if you have it. You'd be our 1st overseas donation if you can

Thanks for the interest.
Russ

[Lady of Shallots]

A great cause, lots of luck guys! Sounds like a big challenge!

[russt1969]

Thank you very much Lady of Shallots for your kind donation. I cant believe we've nearly gone through the £1000 mark.

It's going to be a great challenge. Looking forward to seeing our little island, especially some of those roads up in Scotland

Will be posting pictures when the trip is done so keep watching this space

Thanks again
Russ

[russt1969]

Broken through the £1000

[Lesley Jay]

Originally Posted by russt1969

Broken through the £1000

Brilliant!!!

[russt1969]

Well, what can I say. Chris and I went for a ride to the New Forest at the beginning of this month. We only made it 60 miles before our back sides were killing us...... Not very good for the trip as our days are going to be between 200 and 300 miles a day. We were going to get our seats re done to make them more comfy but Chris had joked about getting a Pan European ST1100 a few weeks earlier. We'd umm'd and arr'd about it then went for the ride to the New Forest which made our minds up.

I'm picking my Pan European up on Saturday . I've got to go down to Dorset which is 108 miles away. I'll keep you informed about my back side when I return ......

It's a real shame about the Africa Twins as they are really great bikes to ride. Alot of fun, but I'm sure these "Pans" will be just as much fun if not better. They also have a greater "tank" range than the AT's. 270 miles compared to 170 miles and they've only got 4 more litres in the tanks.

Looking forward to our next ride out on the 1100's.
Russ

[russt1969]

I'm still alive
Sorry no updates lately. Been one of those few months. What with work and the weather. Not been good.
Enjoying my winter veg's. Parsnips with everything

6 months and a few days to go then we're off. Chris has been able to get hold of a Pan European. Trouble is its got a side car attached :rofl:
He's been able to seperate them trouble is he's now got the name Wallace and Grommit



I'll get a photo of both bikes up on here as soon as we get together on them.

Again many thanks for the support this site has given us. The donations are up to nearly £1200 so thats great.
Next on the list is to get out with the buckets and hit some supermarkets. mmmmmm What a way to spend a Saturday!!

All the best

Russ

[leehydro007]

You people have come out of house for some really a great purpose and your success is proving that. So far so good and i really wish you very very good luck for your future aims like this...Well done!!!

[russt1969]

We've been joined by my mate Mike from Ireland who is going to do the same as us but around North and South Ireland. He's journey will be roughly 2000 miles so between the three of us we'll be covering 8000 miles.

Target has been raised again this time to £1500 which we will hopefully have to raise again.

Many Thanks
Russ

[russt1969]

Made the papers.

[Lesley Jay]

Excellent Russ! That's really great publicity!

[russt1969]

Just to let you know that our new website is up and running. Still a few bits to do here and there but it's looking good for a couple of amatuers.



Have a look Long Way Home 2010 let me know if you can think of anything we're not doing right or any other ideas you may have.

While your there why not visit our just giving website and help us to get to our target.



Cheers all

Russ

[Lady of Shallots]

I just wanted to say how wonderful it is that you are doing this.
Last week, I lost my mother to Ovarian Cancer. She was just 51. This is such a terrible and devastating illness that sadly affects so many lives. I hope you succeed in reaching your target and in your challenge. To know that there are others out there trying to do their bit to help change things is really heartwarming.
Best of luck to you and best wishes,

Tracy Liddy

[russt1969]

4 Weeks to go.

[Reweed]

Can't believe i've only just seen this thread. Good work! I did a charity bike ride a couple of years back... motorbikes are cheating