Well, dear friends, you’ll never believe what the next part in the story is? I’m certainly finding it hard to take in at the moment and I know that my friend Harriet is as well.

I mentioned in my previous post how wonderful it would be to do the MS150 ride with Duncan one day, but that was with the thought that although he has made such great progress, he is a long way away from getting back on a bike. However, just to bring things round “full cycle”, Duncan had no sooner read my comment than he took it upon himself to arrange it for  Harriet and me to go across this April so I can do the ride for real. I am delighted to announce that I will be part of Duncan’s company team and we will tackle the 150mile ride from Houston to Austin over the weekend of April 20th and 21st. We will be in Texas for a few days on either side so hopefully I will be able to see a bit of the state before heading back to Scotland. I have only been to the US once (a holiday visit to Washington DC in 2003) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am so looking forward to the “tourist” bit as well as doing the ride.

This time a year ago I don’t think anyone really would have put any bets on Duncan being able to do much physically. But his determination to make it through and his spirit throughout have been an inspiration. We have no doubt that he would much rather be doing the ride himself (although we wouldn’t blame him for never wanting to sit on a bicycle again) but having the opportunity to do it in his stead is a a dream come true as the cliché goes. And, at least this time it’ll be warm and sunny.

We will be doing our bit to raise money for the MS charity appeal, and my target is currently set at $500. Because of the generosity of three friends, I am already at the half-way point – a mere day after announcing it. I don’t expect to get anywhere near last year’s amazing amount. But I’ll have a damn good try.

We are really looking forward to this all happening – how could we not be? In fact the only reservation I have is that it is unlikely I will be able to cycle through anywhere on the Texan route with as comic a name as the wonderfully picturesque village that we just had to stop in a few miles from last year’s finish line. Tesas, can you throw up anything as wonderfully named as Pant?

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=11126818&pg=personal&fr_id=20226