This will be my fourth Fireflies ride, each year is difficult beyond belief but I have made it each year, (albeit with concussion, a torn ear and my skull revealed on my first ride and a broken ankle for most of the ride last time!). The climbs are massive and arduous, the descents thrilling, but most of all the bond formed between the riders is a magical experience. A few words cannot convey the scale of this ride, most of the time you feel slightly insignificant within the vastness of the mountains that surround you, desperately seeking the dip in the landscape somewhere far off that indicates your way through.
The Fireflies ride brings both the highs and lows of joy and suffering but against what cancer victims of all kinds are battling against ours is an easy task. Failing for us would be disappointing, failing for them has far greater repercussions. My father suffered this fate, he died but never left, his memory burns strong each and every day within my heart; he is with me for every moment of the ride.
Paul Mann Donation