June 3, 2015, by Charlotte Anscombe

And they’re off!

This year’s Nottingham Life Cycle team will be setting off on their first challenge on Friday morning –a gruelling 170 mile hike from  Bridlington to Morecambe, known as ‘The Way of the Roses’.

As most people will now know, during the first four Nottingham Life Cycles, teams of riders rode almost 5,000 miles and climbed a quarter of a million feet. In the process they raised more than £1.5million to fund a range of causes.

Life Cycle 5 is a bit different to the previous years. Rather than a single endurance ride for a team of twelve or fifteen, the core team will be undertaking a series of challenges over the next six months, starting with ‘The Way of the Roses’. Riders will tackle some of the hilliest parts of England and Scotland over a number of weekend and day challenges. Structuring this year’s Life Cycle in this way allows us to offer more opportunities for more people to get on their bikes and get involved.

This year, the teams are raising money for dementia research, part of Impact: The Nottingham Campaign. The team is aiming to raise £350,000 towards the University’s world-leading expertise in MRI scanning to the study of dementia and other degenerative conditions of the brain.

On Friday morning at 7.30am, a team of 30 riders will be setting out on the first challenge, finishing on Sunday 7 June after a gruelling three day trek. Each rider has been asked to donate or raise at least £1,000 in sponsorship.

The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir David Greenaway said: “One in three of us have a relative or close friend who is a dementia patient and that is a massive incidence. Presently, dementia attracts about 8 per cent of the funding that goes to cancer research, so there is a big funding gap there. This year through Life Cycle 5 we are trying to raise funds that will allow us to use our Nobel Prize-winning MRI research to underpin ways of understanding better how dementia affects the brain.

“The challenge will involve a series of individual events. It’ll be more a series of sprints than a marathon. That’s not to say it’ll be easy of course because some of these events will be through the hilliest parts of England and Scotland. So please gear up in helping us to meet the Dementia challenge. You can do that signing for our sponsored rides in August, or by supporting a rider who’s undertaking one of the challenges, or you could simply do it by making a donation, and every single donation will make a difference to this cause.”

For those planning to join in on the University’s Community Life Cycle day, please add Sunday 23 August to your diary. Registration will open in May and there will be four circular routes on offer ranging from 10 miles to 75 miles.

If you would prefer to organise your own challenge or fundraising activity to support Life Cycle 5 and raise funds for dementia research please contact Andrew Legge, Community Fundraising Manager, who would be delighted to support your activities impactcampaign@nottingham.ac.uk

Thank you for everything you do to support our Life Cycle challenges, and the causes they support.

Managing dementia and its consequences for patients and carers is an increasingly pressing challenge.  One in three of us has a friend or close family member with dementia, and that is growing rapidly. Yet, dementia receives only about 1/12th of the funding devoted to cancer. Please take time to watch our launch video: www.nottingham.ac.uk/lifecycle and share with your networks.

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