Keen cyclist and longtime Cure Parkinson’s supporter Alison Anderson will be cycling from Brighton to Barcelona to raise funds and awareness for us.
Alison, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015, will be joined by 19 other cyclists on the 994 mile challenge, eight of whom also live with the condition. Alison’s teammates are travelling far and wide to join her on this incredible adventure, with team members coming from Norway, the USA, Canada and Australia!
Once the epic bike ride begins, Alison and her international team are hoping to cycle around 100km each day, so are all training hard to prepare:
The team are collectively cycling over 2,000km each week in training. Our Canadian and Norwegian friends are still on their indoor trainers until the last of their winter snow melts, but the rest of us are doing a mixture of indoor and outdoor training sessions.”
Alison Anderson
Like the rest of the team, Alison has made sure to train whenever and wherever she can; be it in her home county of Gloucestershire, when visiting family in Scotland, or on trips to Madrid and Abu Dhabi!
Alison also intends to add an extra 225km to her challenge by cycling from Cheltenham to Brighton as a warm up, and will be accompanied by some of her teammates for this part of the journey too. Once the international team have then gathered in Brighton they will set off on Friday 16 June and are hoping to reach Barcelona in time for the World Parkinson Congress, where Alison is an Ambassador, on Tuesday 4 July. The World Parkinson Congress will take place between 4 to 7 July 2023. Having spent a long time planning the epic adventure, Alison and the team are eager to get in the saddle and start cycling:
I’m incredibly excited about the challenge. We have talked about it for three years, planned it over two and trained for it for one. Now that there are only a handful of weeks to go there is a real sense of excitement amongst the team, with a little trepidation.”
Alison Anderson
Two other teams will also be cycling to Barcelona to attend the Congress, with one setting off from Valencia in Spain and the other from Ventimiglia in Italy. Together, with Alison’s team coming from Brighton, the three teams will travel a combined 3,000 km to reach Barcelona.
Click the button below to read more about and donate to Alison’s Brighton to Barcelona cycling challenge.
