Vätternrundan 2022- Heart Aerospace

The What

Earlier this year, several employees from our company decided to embark on a mission. Following the direction of Phil Keenan, who took the bold first step to suggest signing up, we decided to attempt the Swedish legendary bike ride - the Vätternrundan ( https://vatternrundan.se/vatternrundan/en/). It's a fairly epic ride over 315km, around Sweden's second largest lake (called…strangely "Vättern") and across 1 full day. It's the world's largest amateur bike ride. As a group, we consider ourselves very much amateur cyclists…so why not?

The Who

To our surprise, the interest was quite strong. We have collected a group of 11 willing volunteers. Eduardo, Etienne, Fabricio, Fabio, James, Justin, Neil, Neil (that's right, there's two of them…and they're both Scots), Pascal, Phil and Ricardo.

The Why

We've decided to do the run with the intent to fundraise for some charities:

• Alzheimer fonden
• Cancer fonden
• Flames Cycling

So why these 3 charities? Although each of us has our own story, supporting our overall reasoning, Phil has taken the liberty to make a little note of each below and a little of his own feelings & motivations behind it.

Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other cognitive abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60-80% of dementia cases. Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging.In July 2021, my father lost the fight against Alzheimer's disease. Worse still, due to living abroad and the Covid pandemic I was unable to support him & my family to the right level during his failing months, weeks and days. So, for me, the mental & psychological struggle of the ride will have a direct relation to this noble charity - every challenge on every gram of my mind's worth (which remains at future risk due to the hereditary nature of Alzheimer's) is a testament & tribute to those lost to this disease.

Cancer - unfortunately I don't think I really need to describe this monster to anyone, as so few people's lives today have not been touched by it in some way. Alas, mine is no exception there either, having lost my mother during my childhood with her at the age of 38. Yet compensating for this trauma, I also have family successes - cancer scares, diagnoses and successful treatment programmes that have led to loved ones returning to their lives having evaded or beaten cancer. For me, this charity represents the ongoing battle to ensure the right diagnosis, the right treatments and the eventual cure. Again, every ache & groan of my bones and muscles is for them - the fighters, the victims, the families, the doctors, nurses and researchers that wage war against cancer.

Flames Cycling ( https://highandover.cc/flames/) - is a cycling club based in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone, ranking 182 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index in 2019 is still a poor and impoverished country looking to elevate itself to its potential. Flames Cycling Club has a mixed stock of donated bicycles, kits, gear, components and runs as a club with the express intention to get kids engaged in sport and away from the drug trafficking that still resides there. Upon hearing of their constant quest to stitch together punctured inner tubes (because puncture repair kits are hard to get hold of) and bikes inoperative (because buying a seat post or a derailleur was not an option), I found myself rightly humbled as I complain about one of my three bikes needing some maintenance. It does not take much to see that fundraising to help give people a chance & some choice in their lives to indulge in the sport I now love…was a no brainer.

And your part?

So why are we telling you all this? Because the next part is where you help. We would dearly love to fundraise as much as we can against these three charities by enduring (& hopefully enjoying) the epic Vätternrundan. And we'll do it as a group, proudly sporting those charities on our jerseys a well as the Heart Aerospace logo. United in our little endeavour to break a little sweat and do our bit to get the money where it needs to be in the world.