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9x<br />
At the scene of an accident, cyclists are<br />
nine times more likely than other road<br />
users to help fellow cyclists, and three times<br />
quicker to respond than motorists<br />
RIDE<br />
TO LIVE<br />
Jacqueline isn’t a cyclist, but I cycle<br />
to work every day — I’ve been up the<br />
Ventoux, Alpe d’Huez and ridden the<br />
Etape. However, in June we rode the<br />
Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research<br />
London to Paris ride together.<br />
Late last summer we were in a hospital<br />
room with our brother-in-law, Mike.<br />
He had just had a bone marrow<br />
transplant because he had acute<br />
myeloid leukaemia. Mike was getting<br />
into cycling before his diagnosis, and<br />
we signed up for London to Paris that<br />
day. Mike was keen that we raise<br />
money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma<br />
Research, partly because his<br />
consultant received some research<br />
funding from the charity.<br />
The transplant didn’t take effect and<br />
Mike died in February. Mike and<br />
Jacqueline’s sister Maureen have two<br />
young children — Patrick who is six<br />
and Molly who is eight — and we’ve<br />
spent most of the last year with them.<br />
Jacqueline didn’t have a lot of time to<br />
train, as she had major surgery at the<br />
end of 2013. But we did ride a couple<br />
of sportives and numerous laps of<br />
Richmond Park.<br />
The ride to Paris was so well organised.<br />
We were split into three groups — slow,<br />
medium and fast. We were in the slow<br />
group and joked that wasn’t a nice<br />
name, so the event manager started<br />
calling it the ‘social group’. By the end,<br />
however, he cheekily dubbed us the<br />
‘slow-cial’ group, instead.<br />
There was fabulous weather and great<br />
countryside, especially in Northern<br />
France, with fields of all sorts of crops<br />
and poppies everywhere. I found the<br />
ride comfortable, although it was a<br />
challenge, especially some of the hills.<br />
Getting to Paris was quite emotional<br />
because Maureen and the kids came to<br />
meet us (the kids inspired our team<br />
name — the ‘Gurning Grimpeurs’). We<br />
haven’t stopped fund-raising, either.<br />
Molly has a junior triathlon coming up<br />
— the Kimbolton Kids Triathlon.<br />
Jacqueline and I are doing the Surrey<br />
100 ride. And in September Patrick is<br />
doing a kids’ Scootathlon.<br />
75<br />
The British Film Institute’s<br />
video-on-demand<br />
player now has 75 historic<br />
British cycling films<br />
included in a new<br />
collection<br />
Less than 5%<br />
So much for bringing it on ourselves: the proportion<br />
of accidents where cyclists breaking laws (such as<br />
ignoring a red light) is a factor, is less than 5 per cent<br />
Iain & Jacqueline<br />
Marshall<br />
Age: 51 / 44<br />
Occupation: Broadcast<br />
journalist/project manager<br />
Bike: Scott Speedster/<br />
Boardman Comp fi Road<br />
Hometown: Kingston<br />
Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research<br />
needs about £20 million a year to fund<br />
its research. If you’d like to support us,<br />
please visit our JustGiving page: www.<br />
justgiving.com/Iain-Marshall2<br />
Photos: Daniel Gould<br />
SEPTEMBER 2014 CYCLING ACTIVE 13
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