Apr 07, 2015 at 08:13 am

A thank you.....

Update posted by Ben Hunt

Well, can’t believe that’s over. And I still can’t believe we did it!

Just at my desk catching up on here with everyone’s support. Didn’t appreciate quite how supportive everyone been online so has prompted me to do a few thank yous on behalf of the Shop ‘til we drop cyclists;

A big thank you to Madgetts cycles for the free services and fine tuning to the bikes before we set off. They held up amazingly, one puncture in 6 days is incredible!

A large thank you to the ladies at Morrisons, you were one of our earliest and biggest fans. You guys setting up bikes in the store to do the route will have helped spread the word and you raised a significant amount. Very much appreciated.

A huge thank you to Barry and Steph at the cricket club, keeping the crowd hydrated on Friday was not an easy job!

A massive thank you to our biggest fan (literally!) Craig Daniels for managing the media during the ride, you left no stone unturned and now every minor celebrity in the cyber world is aware of our ride! You’re a legend.

A gigantic thank you to Derek. P. Fiske for the free use of one of their vans, the van was a vital component of the ride and getting one for free was an absolute result, hope you enjoyed the free advertising on the news!! Also Neil Taylor’s incredibly kind gesture of free petrol was amazing, meant that the costs for the cyclists were lowered. Thank you guys.

A ginormous thank you to our WAGS. We had to train like troopers to get our bodies even close to the condition required, that involved hours and hours in the gym and even more time on the road, meaning less and less time with our loved ones, sorry about that. Without supportive WAGS this bike ride would not have been possible. When us boys had left for the ride you girls really kicked in, the buzz that you helped to create and the support that it generated meant that we pretty much floated home on cloud 9. Words can’t adequately express how appreciative we all are of your efforts, you turned your spouse’s into minor celebrities….! We love you all very much.

A humungous thank you to everyone that donated, that has shared online, liked, commented or even just followed our adventure online. We are so blown away by the amount raised and the support shown. People’s generosity with their time and money made this bike ride such a worthwhile experience for us guys. Coming back to that reception on Friday will live forever in our memory, it was a truly incredible experience. We prepared extensively for the physical challenges last week threw up but there was no preparing for the raw emotion displayed on Friday. Seeing the whole community unite behind a bunch of idiotic cyclists was amazing. It makes us proud to call Diss home. People kept telling us that we should be proud but we want to take the opportunity to say that it’s you that should be proud, you were under no obligation to be that supportive and could have easily ignored our bike ride for the folly it was, but you mobilised behind 8 men more than anyone could reasonably ask for. It has restored our faith in humanity. There are so many amazing people around.

A monumental thank you to David Closs and Denis Spearman. We said that the bike ride would not have happened without the WAGS, the same is true of you two. Wasting annual leave to sit in a van for a week showed such support. Seeing you guys every evening and stop off point was always, without fail, the highlights of the day. Your humour and willingness to help (when sober) smoothed the cogs of the bike ride so much. Your company was more valuable than anything else this week. We did this as a 10 man team, 10 equal parts. You guys are amazing. True friends.

 

And the final thank you, an absolutely [insert biggest word known to man] thank you to the 8 cyclists that did the hard yards last week. The fact that we came through such adversity with our friendship undeniably stronger is a testament to each and every one of our characters, all of our families deserve massive amounts of credit for raising 8 absolute gentlemen. The fact that there was not a single cross word said in the face of such hardship is pretty much a miracle. We just kept laughing. What you guys did was bring true meaning to the word friendship. Hopefully everyone that has followed our journey will experience even a tiny fraction of the loyalty and love we did last week.

One final thought, to Dave. What you and Toni go through every week makes last week look like a walk in the park. You are the inspiration that made the decision to do this bike ride so easy. I feel so lucky to have been able to begin express quite how much we love you. Last week was all for you and we’d do it all again tomorrow if it made you happy even for a fraction of a second.

To everyone reading this, tell the people close to you how much they mean to you, they won’t be there forever, life is precious x

Thank you everyone. The STWD team.

Back to campaign page