60 Mile Bike Ride for CLAPA
When Deep Patel’s wife, Anita, suggested that he dust down his bike after 6 years and do a bike ride to get fit, Deep saw it as a perfect opportunity to raise money and awareness for CLAPA.
Deep and Anita’s second son Kishan was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate and as a family they have been helped by CLAPA. “CLAPA have been an invaluable source of support to us” says Deep “therefore I decided to do a sponsored 60 mile bike ride to help them continue supporting families in a similar position.”
Deep had expected the bike ride from London to Cambridge to be a challenge, with lots of training involved. However he had not expected to to fall ill just 4 days before the event. “ I was feeling rubbish in the taxi down to the start” says Deep “However all I could think about was all the people that sponsored me, I couldn’t let them down. Considering what Kishan had been through, this was insignificant in comparison.”
With the support from his team and Anita, and a little help from antibiotics and energy gels, Deep managed to complete the course in a little over 4 hours. “A massive thanks to the team on the day who kept me going and an almighty thanks to my amazing wife who did everything possible to make sure I got to the start line.”
Deep’s struggles have been well rewarded as he has managed to raise over £2000 for CLAPA. CLAPA would like to take this opportunity to thank Deep for all of his hard work and Deep and Anita’s friends and family for their generosity.
“My aim was to raise a tonne of money and inspire others to do the same” says Deep. “My eldest son has said he would like to do a sponsored bike ride for Kishan when he is older, so mission accomplished on both fronts!”
CLAPA would also like to take this opportunity to thank Anita’s Father, Vinod, for donating a gift of £712 to CLAPA when he retired last year.
