An Aberdeenshire man is fighting cancer with a 100-year-old motorbike.
Banchory man, Harry Verkuil, is in the midst of a 3,400-mile endurance motorcycle race to raise money for a cancer research charity.
Mr Verquil joined the participants after losing his parents, family members, and friends to brain tumours during the last three years.
He hopes to raise money for research into brain tumours and help spread the message that being diagnosed with a brain tumour is no longer a death sentence.
At the moment, he is travelling nearly 300 miles a day in a gruelling attempt to raise £1,000,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity, which aims to fund research into brain tumours on the same scale as research the likes of breast cancer and lung cancer.
Mr Verkuil said: “I’m fed up losing friends and family to cancer. I’m on a quest for a cure.
“In April, just over two years ago, I lost a dear friend and work colleague (Dr. Ronan McElroy) to a glioblastoma brain tumour.
“My daughter lost her best friend the same year, my wife lost her friend a year before that, and I lost both my parents, all to cancer. I have just had enough.
“I’m undertaking this ‘Challenge to Man and Machine’ to raise money for research into brain cancer. So that the diagnosis of a brain tumour no longer means a death sentence.”
Mr Verkuil is involved in an event which is exclusively for motorcycles aged 100 years and older.
The race follows the trail blazed by the USA Motorcycle Cannonball Run, a route which has been used for the events since 2010.
Mr Verkuil set off from Atlantic City last Saturday and finishes in Carlsbad on September 25.
Geraldine Pipping, the charity’s head of fundraising said: “Harry’s Cannonball Run challenge is an amazing way to raise awareness and vital funds for this devastating disease. We’re wholeheartedly behind him, it will be an incredible achievement.
“Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 and survival rates have not improved significantly over the last 40 years.
“We receive no government funding and rely 100% on voluntary donations and gifts in wills. It is only through the fantastic efforts of people like Harry, that we can change this shocking situation in the future and bring hope to the thousands of people who are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year.”
Mr Verkuil is riding on a 1916 Harley Davidson F-Type. The race’s centenary requirement meant he could not use his own 1925 Indian Scout Motorcycle.
Attempts at getting support from other motorcycle owners, museums and clubs were unsuccessful. Fortunately, a tip from a friend led to the purchase of his new bike, which had to be imported from Newcastle in Australia.
Mr Verkuil said: “The bike was originally imported from the USA in 1917 and first registered in Manchester with the registration number NA6111 (still on the bike).
“In 1990 it was sold to a museum in the USA, where it was auctioned off. Around 2004 it found its way to Australia.”
It has journeyed a long way. It has many more miles to go before the race is finished.
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/curaim
