An Aberdeen cyclist has raised more than £36,000 for a leukaemia charity through a European cycling challenge, following his own diagnosis.
Neil Jackson, aged 52, is taking on the Tour 21 challenge, which sees cyclists ride the full Tour de France route one week ahead of the world famous race itself.
So far, Neil, who works for Neptune Energy in Aberdeen, has managed to raise just over £36,000 through friends & family, sponsorships, and a race night and raffles.
The Tour 21 challenge raises money for Cure Leukaemia, a cause very close to Neil as he was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia in January 2023.
Diagnosis with CLL was a ‘horrible’ six weeks
Neil explained, “in November of 2022, at my previous employer we were given full health screening as part of the package, a full body MOT kind of thing.
“10 days later, I got a PDF document with all my results, and it had a red flag against my white blood cell count and it said I should follow that up with my GP.”
After numerous tests he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), a rare type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
“[The diagnosis] was a major shock to myself and my wife. But it’s been a year since I had the consultations and as it stands, I don’t need any treatment.
“From getting that initial phone call to say that I had some form of blood cancer to actually being told what it was, it was a horrible six weeks.
“To get told it’s this form of leukaemia but you don’t need any treatment, it is effectively life as normal for me.”
Christmas cheer inspired Neil’s fundraising efforts
And it was a present from Santa that actually inspired Neil to get involved in fundraising efforts for the fight against leukaemia.
Just before an appointment at ARI during the holiday season, a volunteer elf handed Neil a wrapped up gift on his way into the Anchor unit.
“It was so touching to get that level of support from just arriving in the building, and there’s people there who are far worse than I am receiving chemotherapy on that day, and they’re getting the same as me.
“I was really touched by that, so I thought, I need to almost give back something because that really did touch me.”
Tour 21 sign up and training ‘like a maniac’
And this is where the idea to take on the Tour 21 challenge came into Neil’s head.
Through seeing ex Premier League footballer Geoff Thomas take on the challenge on his social media, after his own diagnosis with leukaemia, Neil began the application process to sign up for the event.
Only 25 riders are able to take on the task, with the ride being over 2,100 miles from the top of Italy, all the way to Northern France then back down to the Mediterranean coast.
After the Tour 21 team heard Neil’s story, and his background in marathon running, he was invited to join the currently 17 others who are taking on the gruelling cycling challenge.
Neil’s training regime has been non-stop in the year since he committed to the Tour 21.
He explained, “I’ve been training like a maniac for the last nine months, every spare hour is spent cycling.
“My poor wife’s a bit of a widow at the moment to the bike.”
Meeting the team at training camp in sunny Spain
Three weeks ago, Neil joined up with the rest of the Tour 21 team in a state-of-the-art training camp in sunny Majorca.
“It was really good to meet everybody and, get an idea of why they’re doing it and what they’re doing for their fundraising,” explained Neil.
“It was good because it’s quite a diverse group of people, and also quite a diverse group of cycling abilities as well.
“It was really worth it. It was also good from my training point of view and good to meet everybody.
“So here we are with 12 weeks to go on Saturday just past, we start in Florence.
“We have three and a half thousand kilometres ahead of us. 21 days of cycling with two rest days and a hell of a lot of climbing.”
Tour 21, which is covered by American broadcaster NBC on their YouTube channel in a documentary series called “Riding for Survival”, requires participants to raise a minimum of £30,000, and Neil has been hard at work to reach that target.
Neil’s fundraising efforts from all walks of life
Neil said, “I started off with the usual JustGiving links, sending it out to everyone and within a month or so, it was at maybe £3,000, £4,000.
“Then a couple of companies that I work with in the the oil and gas industry got in touch, and two of them have sponsored the event. So they will have their names on the bus and the race jerseys.”
“Bringing them on board as sponsors adds to my own fundraising amount.
Neil also held scratchcards with the prize being four seats to the Legends Lounge at Pittodrie, and has an upcoming race night and charity auction, which is sold out, with the money raised going towards Cure Leukaemia.
Some of the items on offer include tickets to Manchester United v Arsenal, and signed Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers jerseys.
The Tour 21 event kicks off in Florence, Italy, on Saturday 22 June, and Neil’s JustGiving page is still live for donations.
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