'The day I was diagnosed I realised if I could only do one more thing I'd want to cycle around the world'

After cancer and a family bereavement, 26-year-old Luke Grenfell-Shaw set off to cycle from Bristol to Beijing

Luke Grenfell-Shaw (@bristol2beijing/Instagram)

In 2018, Luke Grenfell-Shaw was diagnosed with a type of cancer that very few people survive.

He had been working as an English teacher in Siberia when he got an ache in his left shoulder that wouldn't go away. After a trip to the school's nurse, he was back in the UK 48 hours later getting a biopsy. The primary tumour beneath his left shoulder was the size of an aubergine, and the cancer had spread to his lungs.

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Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.


Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).


I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.