May 24th Day 1 – The Journey North
Travelled to John O’groats, left Lincoln around 10:30am, arrived in John O’groats at 11pm, it was still daylight when we arrived, which was odd! We stayed the night in a lovely bed & breakfast, the one where Ian Botham had stayed when he did his charity walk.

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May 25th Day 2 – Start from John O’groats at 10:30am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Tain at 7:00pm after completing 86.3 Miles
After delays in attempting to register, sign out and get photo’s taken we finally got started at 10:30am, not the start we’d wanted, we made it to a place called Tain (the home of the glen morranghy distillery) , not our preferred target of Inverness, the hills had been tough and the weather had been blowing a gale, hailing and icy rain, we were already starting to go rusty, Brian wasn’t feeling too well due to the terrain and conditions so he sat the last 30 miles out

May 26th Day 3 – Start from Tain at 8:30am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Fort William at 7:00pm after completing, 95.2 Miles
Our first target was to make up the lost distance to Inverness, Brian sat this leg out, we successfully made up some ground along the side of Loch Ness, we’d been sheltered from the wind and the weather had been dry compared to the day previous, the scenery was breath taking and as beautiful as everyone who has visited tells you it is, we made it to Fort Willliam, which put us back on track for our 10 day target. We stayed at a campsite called the Glen Nevis campsite and it was at the foot of the hills to Ben Nevis, again this was stunning surroundings, unfortunately the mountains attracted the clouds and brought us plenty of rain. We dined out in a local restaurant this evening.

May 27th Day 4 – Start from Fort William at 2:00pm – arrive at our final destination for the day, Tyndrum at 7:00pm after completing, 46.9 Miles
We was awoken on this morning by Brian explaining that he’d not had the best of nights sleep and he felt ill, this progressed very quickly to us phoning for an ambulance for him, where he was taken to Fort William hospital, we were very fortunate to have been in one of the more major towns, we weren’t very popular with the paramedics or medical staff for bringing Brian on such an expedition after he’d only had his Pace Maker fitted 8 weeks earlier, Brian was diagnosed as having exhaustion and dehydration and was kept in for the night whilst they monitored his condition, whilst we were relieved that Brian was ill, this left us with a cycling dilemma, did we call it a day here and abandon the ride? We knew that Brian needed to be at home resting and couldn’t continue with us if we carried on, we didn’t know how long Brian would be in hospital for and when exactly he’d be discharged, after many lengthy conversations with friends and family back home, we came up with a plan for Brian to be picked up from Carlisle the next day, should he be discharged, so that afternoon we thought we’d squeeze a few hours cycling in and get Mark and Danny to come and retrieve us from where ever we managed to get in the short space of time we had left, knowing that we needed to be staying local to Brian that evening whilst he was in Fort William hospital, we managed to cycle 48 miles over some of the toughest terrain and conditions we experienced for the whole ride, it was icy cold, the heavens opened, the only good thing was that gusty wind was behind us most of the way up to Glen Coe where we cycled surrounded by snow capped peaks. We made it to Tyndrum, Mark and Danny picked us up and then we stopped by the hospital to visit Brian on the way back to the camp site.

May 28th Day 5 – Start from Tyndrum at 11:40am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Cummnock at 9:00pm after completing, 117 Miles
Today was a day that could either go well or could turn out to be a complete disaster for us, as it turned out, it went as well as we could of hoped, Brian was discharged from hospital at around 1.30pm, Mark and Danny took us to Tyndrum and dropped us off and then returned back the 50 mile trek to the camp site to pick up the spare cycles and then back to the hospital to pick Brian up, they then took Brian to Carlisle where Graham Dixon was meeting them to pick Brian up and take him home. We had been left for the day uncertain as to whether Brian would be discharged, but we knew that we couldn’t afford to lose anymore cycling time if we were going to complete the cycling in the small window that we had left to complete the ride, so if Brian hadn’t of been able to go home that day, Danny and Mark would have had to wait in Fort William another night. We’d set off complete with full rucksacks, fully loaded with wash bags and clean kit for the next day, prepared for the possibility that we may need to find ourselves Bed & Breakfast for the night when we got somewhere close to Kilmarnock. As it turned out Danny and Mark had made good time in completing their 400 mile round trip for the day, meeting us in Cummnock at 9.30pm, which is where we completed the days journey, we went on in the camper van to stay at Sundrum Castle Holiday park.

May 29th Day 6 – Start from Cummnock at 9:20am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Pooley Bridge at 9:00pm after completing, 103.5 Miles
Because of our late finish the night previous it led to another late start this morning

May 30th Day 7 – Start from Pooley Bridge at 9:20am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Chester at 9:45pm, 148.4 Miles


May 31st Day 8 – Start from Chester at 10:30am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Hereford at 7:30pm, 102 Miles


June 1st Day 9 – Start from Hereford at 10am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Cheddar at 8:45pm, 81.8 Miles


June 2nd Day 10 – Start from Cheddar at 8:30am – arrive at our final destination for the day, Bodmin at 9:15pm, 154.4 Miles


June 3rd Day 11 – 11:20am Start from just outside Newquay along the A30 to Bodmin to our previous days finish position, due to heavy traffic, we arrived at the final destination for the whole ride – Lands End at 5:10pm, 154.4 Miles


A total of at least 1008.1 miles completed


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The Story of END2END
On the 25th May 2006, Leigh Dolby, Brian Davis and Dan Dolby are setting off on the challenge of a lifetime, their aim is to cycle approximately 900 miles from John O’Groats to Lands End and do so within nine days.

Why are we doing it?
We’re doing the ride in support and on behalf of 3 charities, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Cancer Research UK and Headway. Briefly outlined below, is why we have chosen these 3 worthy causes:


Multiple Sclerosis Society
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a long-term condition for which, currently, there is no cure, and the exact causes are unknown. Although there are now drugs which can help with managing relapses and symptoms, they are not suitable for everyone and better therapies are needed. Similarly, for many people, MS is also associated with an increase in disability over time. Currently, the availability of treatments aimed at stopping the progression of disability is very limited and more effective therapies are urgently needed. Recently, a close family friend passed away after suffering for many years from this crippling and debilitating illness.



Cancer Research UK
Cancer is an illness that statistically one in three people will get at some point during their life. And everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer. Over the past few years there has been close friends and family that have had to battle against cancer and sadly some are no longer with us because of this awful illness.


Headway
Headway aims to promote understanding of all aspects of head injury and to provide information, support and services to people who have suffered a head injury, their family and carers. On 31st August 2004, best friend and colleague Darren Hickman, 28 years old, suffered a brain haemorrhage whilst out in Lincoln enjoying a drink with friends, it was explained that Darren had an old head injury that he most probably didn’t know that he had. Darren was taken to Lincoln County Hospital and that is where passed away the next day. Darren did many years of charity work.


Darren’s legacy lives on:
Darren was a great guy liked by everyone, he was kind and considerate and would be more than happy to put himself out to help others, for 3 years running Darren had organised the Mastercare 5 a side football tournament, where he got as many as 50 teams attending.

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