Charlotte and Team Waggon & Horses complete 128 mile bike ride

Charlotte Graves was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer when she was 40 years old and 26 weeks pregnant with her son Charlie, who was born six weeks early so she could begin what was to become 16 months of treatment right away

She was given the all clear in August 2020, but sadly four months later, it was discovered that the cancer had returned and this time she would never be cured, but could be treated as long as she kept responding to treatment.

In December 2021, it was discovered that the treatment had stopped working and the tumours were the biggest they’d ever been, and she was told sadly that she had months left to live.

She is now currently receiving “maintenance chemotherapy” to manage her cancer, and her latest CT scan in July show that her tumour has shown no changes and she is still stable.

But Charlotte has continued to live life to the max. Hot off the heels of completing the Race for Life with her family last month, she and ‘The Waggon Wheelers’, a group of friends from The Waggon and Horses pub in South Reston, embarked on a gruelling 128 miles cycle ride over three days raising money for mobile chemotherapy unit charity Hope for Tomorrow and Cancer Research.

It was touch and go if Charlotte would be able to take part in the days before, however, as she contracted an infection over the previous weekend which caused her temperature to spike.

Luckily the infection was combatted with antibiotics and after a thorough check over, she was discharged on the Wednesday, two days before the cycle.

The team, ranging in age from just eight years old to early 70s started at Hope in The Peak District on Friday afternoon (August 18) and they completed 22 miles on the first day which included a lot of hills.

The second day was the day with the most miles, with 65 miles cycled from Hartington to Lincoln, and then the final 41 miles back to South Reston completed on Sunday.

Charlotte said she really enjoyed the cycling challenge:

"It was tough in places, especially along the tracks which were full of rubble and going down hill and there certainly were some big hills to cycle up,” she said.

"Although I still had to work at it, I was also lucky enough to have the assistance of my e-bike up those hills but the hills were definitely gruelling and more so for those who didn’t have an e-bike. I do like to challenge myself though so I did keep my bike in echo the majority of the time but increased to tour and sport when I felt I needed to. I feel very proud of us all

You can still make a donation to the Waggon Wheelers by visiting their JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/page/waggon-wheelers-1690748940987?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fwaggon-wheelers-1690748940987&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share