Early in 2022 I somehow stumbled across the very engaging Alison Anderson, who is an ambassador for the World Parkinson Congress, which is taking place in early July 2023. I think I met her through some Facebook group to do with people with Parkinson's and the benefits of exercise. A small group then helped to set up a plan to cycle from the UK to Barcelona in June/July 2023. Although my normal long-distance cycling plans involve touring bike, panniers, tent, the general consensus was that a supported trip would be most attractive to the largest number of people. The group size is about 20, and approximately half of these are cyclists with Parkinson's.

Effectively, this is a holiday that we are paying for out of our own pockets, so any sponsorship that is raised goes directly to the organisation, which, in my case is Parkinson's UK. There is no need to donate if you do not wish to, and I will not go on about the sponsorship element.

At a personal level, I am very pleased that my friends from America, Kathy and Dave, are coming over to join us and I'm looking forward to introducing them to the delights of British, French and Spanish/Catalan culture.

From a logistics point of view, we have engaged Bike Adventures to handle all the bookings, and provide van/luggage/technical support, and Steve, in particular, has been fantastic in all of the advice and route planning that we will be needing. 

Bike Adventures have organised all the hotels which are pre-booked along the way, and we have approximately 106 km  on average per day to cycle.