My oldest lad Ben, has set himself the goal to ride from Perth to Melbourne this Spring leaving November 7th, 2016 to raise funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne. Originally on his old fixed gear bike – but it didn’t survive the training! His friends at Curve Cycling have loaned him a bike more up to the job that should carry him safely across the 3,600kms. And why is he doing this? Mid-Spring through the Nullarbor? Solo. Mainly unsupported (he’s relented to having his dad lurking around with extra water – just in case – while he crosses the Nullarbor)! Because he has been blown away by the dedication and commitment of the RCH staff; a celebration of all they have done for him to keep him with us today.

You can see his route on Strava to find out when he will be coming through your town through his links on his Facebook and blog pages:

https://www.facebook.com/FixedHeartFixedGear/ and  

https://fixedheartfixedgear.wordpress.com/

and you can follow him (Ben Le Mesurier) on his Instagram

http://www.imgrum.net/user/thinkdot/268443894 

If you want to join in you can support him through Everyday Hero:

https://give.everydayhero.com/au/fixed-gear-fixed-heart#/?_k=c9ervu

and there’s also a Go Fund Me site to help him with the not insignificant costs of attempting such an event, if you would rather help in that way gofundme.com/2m4fr6uc

Ben is doing this fundraising event in his Gap Year before doing Design at RMIT.

Why did this all come about? If you are interested in a little backstory, read on …

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Ben was one for gadgets from a very early age. He never could resist bikes and from as soon as he was able to toddle about investigating our garden he was into everything. He would occupy himself for most of the day hiding under our weeping mulberry tree, munching on mulberries, rounding up the geese (I kid you not – this lad was fearless), watching the bantam and guinea fowl chicks or fiddling around with my old bike. Whatever it was he was up to, he would toddle in for food covered in glorious black – mulberry juice, goose and fowl poo or bike grease! He hasn’t really changed …

These days tho’ he manages to keep his bike grease to his hands although he still manages to get suitably besmeared in ash and grease when he’s forging out in the backyard or dusty from head to toe when he’s woodturning. 

But at the moment, Ben has a bigger target in his sights. Riding from Perth to Melbourne  – originally on his old fixed gear bike. His bike has been his trusty steed and a friend indeed throughout his frequent journeys to the Royal Children’s Hospital. But it all got too much for the old bike after 25,000+kms of riding and a record 4,000kms of training rides in three months. It has tortured Ben to stop with the fixie dream as the point of connection between his heart treatment and raising funds for the heart unit was really clear to him. However, the bigger challenge is to complete the journey and raise the money and preferably to do it safely! After all, not much point making him dingo fodder after all that has been done to keep him going this far! He spent ages trying to fix his fixie and sold his other fixie track bike to pay for all the repairs but in the end it just was not enough. This obsession with gadgets that started early in life has blossomed into an ability to fix most things – lucky with a rickety bike! It was his love of gadgets that got him into trouble and on the first step of this particular journey, but it also saved his life.

It was a watch. A pretty watch with a glass back plate that showed all the workings. Too huge for his tiny wrist but he coveted that watch. So one school morning when he had ‘show and tell’ he decided to borrow the watch to use for his weekly moment of primary school class fame. The dilemma, of course, was how was he going to make sure it stayed safe until he got it back home. He decided to wear it, tucked up behind the tight cuff of his school bomber jacket. All went swimmingly until playtime. An innocuous game of ‘chasey’ and the Black Buddha struck. Crashing to the ground, hand outstretched to break his fall, but the illicit watch got there first and broke for him, splintering glass sharding the palm of his hand. Gushes of blood and tears, neither of which were able to be stemmed by the school nurse saw him being taken to the Children’s to get his hand stitched. And that should have been the end of the story, but no. There’s more. This was the beginning of a bit of a shake up for us all.

Ben had to return to the Children’s a few months later as a ‘growth’ had appeared beside his healing scar. Ultrasound was inconclusive and so he had to return for some more day surgery. Yes, that’s right, more … 9 year old Ben and needles didn’t mix well so the first repair had to be done under general anaesthetic. Two months later and I am being questioned by the anaesthetist as to why I hadn’t warned them that Ben had a heart murmur and a slow heart rate! News to me. We had migrated twice since Ben was born (Zimbabwe – UK, UK – Australia) and nothing had ever been said in the migration health checks; he had had previous surgery once when he was tiny and, oh yes, that’s right, two months ago here – he was fine before so what happened then? Why wasn’t the problem picked up then? Massive scurrying of specialists and serious re-checking of medical records.

Ben’s surgery was a success – a plantar wart (verruca) of all things had infected his hand whilst it was healing – probably because he was fiddling with the one on his foot! But it was somewhat disconcerting for us all that he didn’t go home after his day surgery. Instead, he was whisked along to have an echo done of his heart, to have multiple specialists stand around him and mutter things to me like ‘pacemaker’, ‘complete heart block’ and “By the way, do you have Lupus?”

9 months later, after multiple check ups, multiple holter monitor wearing for 24, 48 or 72 hours (totally yuck on the 40 degree weeks as no showers, no swimming), the clincher came when we were shown one of Ben’s nightly read outs. A few classically shaped heart beat spikes then a very long flat line _______________ that went on for far too long. My early mummy worries of Ben not waking in the morning were being realised. Ben’s heart was having a wee snooze itself at night it would seem. One day, when he was a teenager or a young adult, it wouldn’t wake up and nor would Ben. Within a couple of weeks, Ben was in having surgery. And so the route was set for Ben.

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Follow him on his latest journey for the Children’s

https://www.facebook.com/FixedHeartFixedGear/ and  

https://fixedheartfixedgear.wordpress.com/ and

http://www.imgrum.net/user/thinkdot/268443894 

If you want to join in you can support him through Everyday Hero:

https://give.everydayhero.com/au/fixed-gear-fixed-heart#/?_k=c9ervu