"I thought it would cause some sort of intrigue," Kev Griffiths explains, talking about his charity venture Cancer My Arse. "My theory was that hopefully it'd be something more than just a standard bike ride, which anybody and everybody goes and does."
The industry veteran and member of two of Britain's most historic cycling families - the Swinnertons and the Griffiths - launched the charity this year after discovering that his cancer had returned, and that it is now terminal.
The idea is simple, to raise funds from the cycling community and further afar through a challenge: ride out of the saddle for as long as possible. To date, it has raised over £35,000 for various cancer charities, but it is not the end of the road.
"I always wanted to do something for charity, but I knew that if I couldn't recover and get back to full health, I could never do anything extraordinary on my own that would encourage people to donate to the cause," he says.
"I'm not belittling anybody that raises 200 quid, 500 quid, or whatever. But I wanted to do something bigger than that. I thought I could capitalise on my connections, contacts and do something that involved more people, to make it more engaging and to encourage people to participate and donate. Hence the challenge."
As the charity's website reads: "I'm calling on family, friends, and cyclists everywhere to ride—without sitting in the saddle. This challenge isn’t just about raising funds; it’s about showing that no matter the obstacles, the human spirit is resilient and full of hope.
"Four and half years ago, I got the diagnosis that I had a tumour in my bowel, my colon," Griffiths tells CW of his condition. "After the first op went well, 12 months on, they scanned me again and found the cancer had spread to both lungs, so they took sections out of both and gave me radiotherapy and chemotherapy to mop it up. They scanned me again this year, and they found cancer had come back very aggressively in my pelvis and both lungs again.
"Since April, I’ve been on chemo most of the time, and had 25 sessions of radiotherapy too. The hope is that they can shrink the tumour in the pelvis, that’s the biggest concern. As ever in my life, these days, I’m waiting on test results before we go onto the next stage. I’ve got a permanent stoma, hence the thought of sitting down on a bike wasn’t appealing."
Griffiths founded BikeZaar, the online platform uniting independent bike dealers, after years in the industry, and is trying to use his connections to raise the stature of his charity.
The name Cancer My Arse is quite stark, but Griffiths explains the reasoning behind it: "All the feedback has been amazing, everybody said it needed a name like this to stand out as talking point.
"We’ve got loads of events lined up. Hopefully there are more challenges to come, and I want the brand to continue, whether that’s me or not."
As for the challenge itself, it's one that Griffiths, but also everyone, seems to struggle with: "I felt it more in my upper body when I tried to do it. It’s a funny one, when you ask anyone how far they can go, nobody really knows. We’ve had a few who have done over 20 miles, including one guy who actually took his saddle out, which I thought was a bit crazy, because if you do need to sit fairly quickly…
"I thought it would be good to have something fun and engaging. This is about getting people on bikes and remembering how fun it can be, and we’ll see how it goes."
To donate, find out more, or take part in Cancer My Arse visit cancermyarse.co.uk.
