Riders, including Connor Swift, Lizzie Deignan MBE, Fred Wright and Pfeiffer Georgi, have all helped to raise an incredible £250,000 for children’s charity Action Medical Research at a unique celebration of cycling.
The ‘new blood’ edition of the annual Champions of CycleSport Dinner saw the sport’s newest stars AJ August, Zoe Backstedt, Cat Ferguson, Niamh Fisher-Black and Jack Rootkin-Gray join forces with established legends Sean Kelly, Sean Yates, Yanto Barker, Nico Roche, Joanna Rowsell MBE OLY and Mark Beaumont BEM to show their support.
Jody Cundy CBE, Jon Mould, Danni Shrosbree, Hannah Walker and Matt Stephens completed the epic line-up at Evolution London in Battersea on Wednesday, 22 November, hosted by Olympic athlete Iwan Thomas.
The event was supported by Garmin, who make products that are engineered on the inside, for life on the outside, accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, and Lifeplus, a holistic wellbeing company who formulate and manufacture high quality nutritional supplements, sports nutrition and personal care products.
Among the more than 600 guests was mum Louise George, who spoke movingly about her daughter Jessica, who was born with a heart problem called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) which affects one baby in 5,000[1]. Jessica underwent a number of operations in her early years and needed daily medication; tragically, she died in April 2018 at just six years old.
Louise spoke passionately about her dedication along with her husband Michael to help other children with heart disease. "Research leads to improvements in treatments, which means fewer families who are forever incomplete. This is why the work of Action Medical Research is so important," she explains. "It means a lot to know that Jessica's story is able to help others and that by sharing it, it is also helping to keep her memory alive."
Action Medical Research is the leading UK-wide children’s charity dedicated to funding research to tackle the diseases that devastate the lives of so many of our children. Researchers at King’s College London, funded by Action, have used advanced computer modelling techniques to study treatments for babies born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Their important findings pave the way for improving surgical decision-making in the future.
To find out more about the event, as well as the work that Action Medical Research does, visit https://action.org.uk/champs.
Photo credits:
Claire Jonas Photography/ @clairejonasphotography
Colin Baldwin Photography/ @colinbaldwinphotos
Lee Collier/ @leepcollier
Reference
[1] 1. Khairy P et al. Univentricular heart. Circulation. 2007; 115(6): 800-12.