Cycling Professor to raise funds for cancer charity

A Professor from the University of Reading is jumping on his saddle to take on one of the most gruelling physical challenges to help raise funds for national blood cancer charity, Cure Leukaemia.

David Brayshaw is riding in the charity’s “The Tour 21” event, which will take place from Friday, 23 June – Sunday 16 July 2023 and sees a team of 25 amateur cyclists taking on all 21 stages of the Tour de France with the aim of raising more than £1,000,000 for the charity. 

Starting in Bilbao, the most populous city in the Basque Country, the team will follow the same route as the professionals – just one week ahead - and ride close to 3,500km in just 21 days. 

Cancer diagnosis

David has a very personal reason for wanting to complete the gruelling cycle on behalf of the charity after experiencing his own battle with Hodgkins Lymphoma – a form of blood cancer which develops when white blood cells become cancerous and form lumps (swollen lymph glands) in your body. He was first diagnosed in 2016 when he developed a continuous cough. 

On investigation, a large lump was found under his arm and across the left side of his chest, though luckily enough it had not spread across the rest of his body. A course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy followed over several months at the start of 2017. 

The course finished just in time for him to celebrate the birth of his second son a few weeks later.

“The outlook for me was always positive but the period of waiting for a diagnosis and undergoing the treatment was hard for all my family. The treatment itself - even the chemo – was unpleasant but thankfully not too bad.  

“Effects vary from person to person but, apart from feeling pretty rubbish for several days each fortnight, it was quite bearable really. The worst bit was having to have my wife and daughter move out of our house for a few months as my lack of immune system really wasn't working well with having a toddler at home. Effectively, I discovered ‘lockdown that year, well before the term became fashionable with the outbreak of Covid.

“Years of medical research made my particular form of blood cancer treatable and this is where Cure Leukaemia’s work is so vital.  

“Their Trials Acceleration Programme–with its catchment of 20 million patients in the UK- brings new life-saving drugs and treatments out of the research lab and makes it 

available to patients. 

“On a more day-to-day level, the specialist nurses in this programme provide support to patients and their families, helping them understand and take control of their care.”

Getting active

During his treatment, David’s wife made the decision to buy him a new bike as a 'recovery present which has since been put to good use in a number of cycling events raising money for cancer charities. The Tour 21 will mark a big step up in challenge, but David will be approaching it with renewed motivation having survived a recent cancer relapse scare earlier this year. 

Money raised will be invested in the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) which has been solely funded by Cure Leukaemia–the UK Charity Partner of the Tour de France since January 2020. The TAP Network is a network of specialist research nurses at 15 blood cancer centres located in the UK’s biggest cities. This network enables accelerated setup and delivery of potentially life-saving blood cancer clinical trials to run, giving patients from a UK catchment area of over 20 million people access to treatments not currently available through standard care. 

Keep up-to-speed with David’s challenge and follow his progress.