what I’ve definitely learned over the
last years is that life is a really
strange thing just when you think you’ve
got it mapped out all of a sudden it
throws you this massive curveball and
sometimes as I’m told many times
the thing about curveball is it teaches
you to catch and if you catch you can
throw it straight back sometimes you
drop the ball but it’s about how you
pick it up that matters
my curveball definitely came when I
thought I’d got it sussed I thought it
was mapped out I knew what I was doing
everything was fine I’ve got a good job
I’ve got a nice car got a nice house I
was spending what I was earning I was
actually driving what I was earning at
the time the same thing really
everything was on track for the way I
thought it could be
but then that clearly wasn’t how it was
meant to be my curve ball as you’ve
heard came in November 2008 when I was
admitted to Ward’s Grove hospital with
chronic back pain they found an 11 1/2
centimeter tumor wedged between my spine
kidney and bowel which due to where it
was was an operable now at the time I
wasn’t too fazed by this eleven and a
half centimeter tumor due to the fact
that I was on 300 milligrams of morphine
at the time and they’ve just sat me down
and told me that they’re not removing my
testicles for me that was quite a moment
and the fact that I had an 11 and 1/2
centimeter tumor was kind of irrelevant
and I wandered back to my bed certain
things you can’t control and that was
one of them as the doctor told me
there’s no Haynes manual for this kind
of thing we’ve just got to do what we’ve
got to do and you’ve just got to trust
him in what he’s doing by Christmas I
was neutropenic neutropenic is where
your red blood cell count is so low that
you you are basically allergic to fresh
air by February 2009 I dropped from 14
stone to 6 and lost the ability to walk
two weeks later
I woke up in intensive care
I had 45 stitches in my stomach my bowel
had been brought out onto the surface I
had two tubes in my left hand side I had
two tubes on my right hand side there
were four tubes in my chest there were
three under my arm there were two
cannulas in each arm there was one of my
nose there was one in my throat and
there was a particularly memorable one
somewhere else that was pretty much for
me as bad as it probably could have got
and actually this was for me was the
worst thing that had ever happened to me
but eight years on it was actually the
best thing that ever happened to me it’s
strange and I try and use a slightly
different context and I probably say
these words more to the wards at the end
of a speaking but cancer was the best
thing that ever happened to me it’s a
horrible disease there’s over two
million people living with cancer at the
moment anybody born after 1968 stands
just a warning to chance of being
diagnosed with cancer but the fact of
the matter is it changed my life
completely what it also did and what I
do now is fight against cancer it’s
quite strangely the best thing that ever
happened to me is now something that I
fight against on a daily basis and I
talk about quite often and every penny I
raise is in the fight to try and beat
this thing
they taught me so much if I hadn’t have
gone through that I wouldn’t have worked
with the people that I work with I
wouldn’t have been associated with the
brands that I have I would not have
taken on the challenges that I’d have
done I would not have understood and
believed that actually we’re truly
capable of achieving anything that we
want we’re amazing I’m no different to
any single one of you sat here I’m no
different to that any audience that I
spoke to over the last four five six
seven eight years we’re all exactly the
same we all built exactly the same way
we’ve all got the same bits there are a
few of us out there that got bits
missing but we’re all the same we’ve all
got the same brain we’ve all got the
same heart we can all achieve the same
things and that was what I came out of
this with that belief which was why less
than a year after coming out of hospital
I decided to ride across America I
wanted to give something back
to the people that had been there and
helped me but I also wanted to celebrate
the fact that actually I’d beat this
thing it was also part of me that didn’t
want to go back to work yet so I wanted
to do something that kind of helped me
rehabilitate but also give something
back and give some kind of worth to what
I was doing reasons get out of bed in
the morning in some respects so the idea
was that I would finish in Miami a year
to the day of being given the don’t
darken my doorstep conversation again
from my surgeon wasn’t the most patient
of patients that’s put it that way but
we get on really well and I speak to him
quite regularly the idea at the time was
ludicrous the most I’d ridden was five
miles around our local reservoir just a
few weeks after that ride I’m in seeing
Annie talking about what I’m going to do
people are telling me that I can’t do it
I’m saying I can do it five miles led to
10 miles 10 lives led to 20 miles next
thing I’m doing a 60 mile sportif then
I’m doing a 90 sport mike-mike 2 mile
sportif then I’m riding from John
O’Groats to Land’s End doing 90 miles a
day then I’m over in America doing 130
miles a day I celebrated my 30th
birthday in Austin Texas which was the
4th of July and I found out later the
party wasn’t for me it’s just something
they do every year apparently six days
after that I was hit by a truck 70 miles
an hour from behind it put me 120 feet
down the road it broke three of my ribs
it smashed up my elbow and it took all
the skin off my legs it took most the
skin off my hands and actually strangely
if you watch it on YouTube now I’d
probably be quite funny to see me trying
to hold on to the road as I’m sliding
down it I spent three days in hospital
came home but I was determined that
actually being in a situation I was in
then was far far far better than what
I’d been in before
so chance to maybe come back and do this
again to have another crack at this I
wanted to go back and finish what I’d
started but then after a short period of
time I realized that actually if I went
back and finish what I started I still
wouldn’t have actually ridden across
America so I went back to LA six months
after the accident and I rode from LA to
Miami in 24 days instead of 30
four days which had been originally
planned I rode 147 miles a day and it
was three thousand four hundred and
seventy three miles and I average 21
miles an hour 18 months after coming out
of hospital 18 months after being given
but you’re clear but you’re in remission
after that there was this really lost
feeling but there was no reason for this
loss feeling everything I could have
really wanted bar the money everything
else was coming together why now
suffering wife Louise told me that she
was pregnant I didn’t really know how to
deal with that at the time but because I
put this idea of having children out of
my head completely I was told there was
more chance of the moon here in earth
than me ever being able to have children
and now I’m being told halfway across
America interestingly whilst I’m sat
there talking to the guy that was the
first person on the scene of the
accident I’m also getting a phone call
to tell me that my girlfriend’s pregnant
shortly after returning from there I
kind of spiraled into a bit of a bit of
a dark place I’ve been this whole hype
around the event and everything that I
was doing that I kind of lost focus on
reality I lost focus on actually what
had happened and what had gone on so I
picked myself up and I went out on my
bike and all of a sudden it started to
make sense
I rode across Mexico I rode across
France I went training with the Tour de
France winner which was amazing over in
New Yorker I went to the French Alps I
came back from the French Alps and I was
diagnosed with a second chamber I was
told they’d found another tumor but
again I’m sitting there thinking
actually this can’t be as bad as it was
first time around the first tumor was
the size of a grapefruit this one’s the
size of a ping-pong ball you’ve got two
choices really when you hear those words
in my personal view you can either say
I’ve got cancer that’s it game over or
you can say that this isn’t came over
because the thing is once something gets
inside your head once anything gets
inside your head
it’s already won so I still did the
London to Paris over three days and I
finished in the top 20 out 300 riders I
still did the ITU world champs
I still did the great swim series I
still went out to annecy much to the
despair of Louise in September we
started a race on the Thursday a race
Thursday Friday Saturday I flew home on
the Sunday I went in to have the tumor
removed on the Monday morning I started
chemotherapy two weeks later three weeks
after that this little guy turned up
he’s just he’s another reason why I do
what I do because I don’t want people
and I especially don’t want him
believing that he can’t achieve anything
that he wants and that he can’t be
anybody that he wants to be he’s amazing
but so are you
so is everybody else we all have this
unique ability and he’s part of the
reason why I continually push on he’s
the reason why I get out of bed some
mornings he was the reason that stopped
my bed from becoming this place that I
could escape to and deal with depression
and the dark days because actually that
dark day would land yet he’d walk in and
stand next to the bed morning daddy how
can you not respond to that and hearing
his voice when I’m away makes me want to
get home but some mornings he makes me
want to go out as well but that’s the
beauty of it really he’s my little boy
he’s a new beginning cancer was a new
beginning and the accident was a new
beginning every day is a new beginning
every day is a new challenge every day
is something that allows us to become
bigger and better than we already are I
think part of the problem that we have
often is that and there’s lots of
sayings out there if your dreams aren’t
big enough that people love them then
they’re not big enough it’s not about
how big your dream is it’s how about how
you get there it’s how you work out how
you’re going to get there which is why
for the first time openly I’m quite
happy to stand there and saying 2019 I’m
going to win the toughest bike race in
the world I’m going to go back to
America in 2019 I’m going to do the race
across America which is going to
basically involve me riding 3,000 miles
dates but how do we get there so how do
we get there
well it’s quite simple really we look at
the fact we’ve got to ride 3,000 miles
in 10 days or quicker and then we say
okay we’re going to do this event we’re
going to do that event we’re going to do
300 miles in a day we’re going to do the
seven-day world-record which is 3,000
kilometers in seven days we’re going to
do Portugal north to south which is four
hundred sixty miles in 24 hours I’m
going to do Falmouth to London we’re
going to do London to Paris which I’ve
done in 14 hours I’m going to see if I
can do it quicker than that
once you’ve done something you know that
you can go on to do even greater things
because I’ve said already we are all
amazing human beings we’re all capable
of doing this and the reason that I use
one step at a time is because literally
that was how I got to where I am now I
wiggled my toes I couldn’t move in
hospital I couldn’t physically move down
up the bed I could move down the bed
really well I could not get back up the
bed I could wiggle my toes and over time
I could wiggle my fingers and then over
time I could move my ankles and I
remember the first time I ever moved my
legs the first time I remember that
night I just moved them first time I
stood up I stood up for 10 seconds you
see what I’ve been through over that
period of time is no different to what
anybody else has ever been through
ok the cancer thing not everybody’s been
through that I’ve really been through
the coma thing but they’re learning to
walk they’re learning to eat the
learning to function the learning to
ride a bike we’ve all done it
differences I did it at 28 and I
remember every single second of every
single day that I had to go through that
process I remember using the Zimmer
frame when you did it you used a plastic
toy with a handle on the back of it when
you learn to pick yourself up you use a
piece of furniture or using the nurse so
different we all sit there and we talk
to our children
just one more P one more P Freddie
that’s all you got to eat one more P one
more step one more cent
it’s one more calculation one more mile
one more drink Arnold Schwarzenegger or
I said one more rep so many analogies
out there that we can use they’re there
for us to take them hand by hand but
often we read them and we joke
I wrote the red one yesterday which was
on a card in AG in a shop round the
corner which was the caterpillar thought
it was about to die before it turned
into a butterfly I’m definitely no
Buffalo but I know that we can achieve
amazing things I know we’re capable of
achieving anything that we possibly want
to believe to achieve is the best
sentence I think or best wording I think
I’ve ever heard because if you believe
it you can achieve it and there are
thousands upon thousands of great people
out there in this world that have shown
us that that is possible that is the
government thank
you
last years is that life is a really
strange thing just when you think you’ve
got it mapped out all of a sudden it
throws you this massive curveball and
sometimes as I’m told many times
the thing about curveball is it teaches
you to catch and if you catch you can
throw it straight back sometimes you
drop the ball but it’s about how you
pick it up that matters
my curveball definitely came when I
thought I’d got it sussed I thought it
was mapped out I knew what I was doing
everything was fine I’ve got a good job
I’ve got a nice car got a nice house I
was spending what I was earning I was
actually driving what I was earning at
the time the same thing really
everything was on track for the way I
thought it could be
but then that clearly wasn’t how it was
meant to be my curve ball as you’ve
heard came in November 2008 when I was
admitted to Ward’s Grove hospital with
chronic back pain they found an 11 1/2
centimeter tumor wedged between my spine
kidney and bowel which due to where it
was was an operable now at the time I
wasn’t too fazed by this eleven and a
half centimeter tumor due to the fact
that I was on 300 milligrams of morphine
at the time and they’ve just sat me down
and told me that they’re not removing my
testicles for me that was quite a moment
and the fact that I had an 11 and 1/2
centimeter tumor was kind of irrelevant
and I wandered back to my bed certain
things you can’t control and that was
one of them as the doctor told me
there’s no Haynes manual for this kind
of thing we’ve just got to do what we’ve
got to do and you’ve just got to trust
him in what he’s doing by Christmas I
was neutropenic neutropenic is where
your red blood cell count is so low that
you you are basically allergic to fresh
air by February 2009 I dropped from 14
stone to 6 and lost the ability to walk
two weeks later
I woke up in intensive care
I had 45 stitches in my stomach my bowel
had been brought out onto the surface I
had two tubes in my left hand side I had
two tubes on my right hand side there
were four tubes in my chest there were
three under my arm there were two
cannulas in each arm there was one of my
nose there was one in my throat and
there was a particularly memorable one
somewhere else that was pretty much for
me as bad as it probably could have got
and actually this was for me was the
worst thing that had ever happened to me
but eight years on it was actually the
best thing that ever happened to me it’s
strange and I try and use a slightly
different context and I probably say
these words more to the wards at the end
of a speaking but cancer was the best
thing that ever happened to me it’s a
horrible disease there’s over two
million people living with cancer at the
moment anybody born after 1968 stands
just a warning to chance of being
diagnosed with cancer but the fact of
the matter is it changed my life
completely what it also did and what I
do now is fight against cancer it’s
quite strangely the best thing that ever
happened to me is now something that I
fight against on a daily basis and I
talk about quite often and every penny I
raise is in the fight to try and beat
this thing
they taught me so much if I hadn’t have
gone through that I wouldn’t have worked
with the people that I work with I
wouldn’t have been associated with the
brands that I have I would not have
taken on the challenges that I’d have
done I would not have understood and
believed that actually we’re truly
capable of achieving anything that we
want we’re amazing I’m no different to
any single one of you sat here I’m no
different to that any audience that I
spoke to over the last four five six
seven eight years we’re all exactly the
same we all built exactly the same way
we’ve all got the same bits there are a
few of us out there that got bits
missing but we’re all the same we’ve all
got the same brain we’ve all got the
same heart we can all achieve the same
things and that was what I came out of
this with that belief which was why less
than a year after coming out of hospital
I decided to ride across America I
wanted to give something back
to the people that had been there and
helped me but I also wanted to celebrate
the fact that actually I’d beat this
thing it was also part of me that didn’t
want to go back to work yet so I wanted
to do something that kind of helped me
rehabilitate but also give something
back and give some kind of worth to what
I was doing reasons get out of bed in
the morning in some respects so the idea
was that I would finish in Miami a year
to the day of being given the don’t
darken my doorstep conversation again
from my surgeon wasn’t the most patient
of patients that’s put it that way but
we get on really well and I speak to him
quite regularly the idea at the time was
ludicrous the most I’d ridden was five
miles around our local reservoir just a
few weeks after that ride I’m in seeing
Annie talking about what I’m going to do
people are telling me that I can’t do it
I’m saying I can do it five miles led to
10 miles 10 lives led to 20 miles next
thing I’m doing a 60 mile sportif then
I’m doing a 90 sport mike-mike 2 mile
sportif then I’m riding from John
O’Groats to Land’s End doing 90 miles a
day then I’m over in America doing 130
miles a day I celebrated my 30th
birthday in Austin Texas which was the
4th of July and I found out later the
party wasn’t for me it’s just something
they do every year apparently six days
after that I was hit by a truck 70 miles
an hour from behind it put me 120 feet
down the road it broke three of my ribs
it smashed up my elbow and it took all
the skin off my legs it took most the
skin off my hands and actually strangely
if you watch it on YouTube now I’d
probably be quite funny to see me trying
to hold on to the road as I’m sliding
down it I spent three days in hospital
came home but I was determined that
actually being in a situation I was in
then was far far far better than what
I’d been in before
so chance to maybe come back and do this
again to have another crack at this I
wanted to go back and finish what I’d
started but then after a short period of
time I realized that actually if I went
back and finish what I started I still
wouldn’t have actually ridden across
America so I went back to LA six months
after the accident and I rode from LA to
Miami in 24 days instead of 30
four days which had been originally
planned I rode 147 miles a day and it
was three thousand four hundred and
seventy three miles and I average 21
miles an hour 18 months after coming out
of hospital 18 months after being given
but you’re clear but you’re in remission
after that there was this really lost
feeling but there was no reason for this
loss feeling everything I could have
really wanted bar the money everything
else was coming together why now
suffering wife Louise told me that she
was pregnant I didn’t really know how to
deal with that at the time but because I
put this idea of having children out of
my head completely I was told there was
more chance of the moon here in earth
than me ever being able to have children
and now I’m being told halfway across
America interestingly whilst I’m sat
there talking to the guy that was the
first person on the scene of the
accident I’m also getting a phone call
to tell me that my girlfriend’s pregnant
shortly after returning from there I
kind of spiraled into a bit of a bit of
a dark place I’ve been this whole hype
around the event and everything that I
was doing that I kind of lost focus on
reality I lost focus on actually what
had happened and what had gone on so I
picked myself up and I went out on my
bike and all of a sudden it started to
make sense
I rode across Mexico I rode across
France I went training with the Tour de
France winner which was amazing over in
New Yorker I went to the French Alps I
came back from the French Alps and I was
diagnosed with a second chamber I was
told they’d found another tumor but
again I’m sitting there thinking
actually this can’t be as bad as it was
first time around the first tumor was
the size of a grapefruit this one’s the
size of a ping-pong ball you’ve got two
choices really when you hear those words
in my personal view you can either say
I’ve got cancer that’s it game over or
you can say that this isn’t came over
because the thing is once something gets
inside your head once anything gets
inside your head
it’s already won so I still did the
London to Paris over three days and I
finished in the top 20 out 300 riders I
still did the ITU world champs
I still did the great swim series I
still went out to annecy much to the
despair of Louise in September we
started a race on the Thursday a race
Thursday Friday Saturday I flew home on
the Sunday I went in to have the tumor
removed on the Monday morning I started
chemotherapy two weeks later three weeks
after that this little guy turned up
he’s just he’s another reason why I do
what I do because I don’t want people
and I especially don’t want him
believing that he can’t achieve anything
that he wants and that he can’t be
anybody that he wants to be he’s amazing
but so are you
so is everybody else we all have this
unique ability and he’s part of the
reason why I continually push on he’s
the reason why I get out of bed some
mornings he was the reason that stopped
my bed from becoming this place that I
could escape to and deal with depression
and the dark days because actually that
dark day would land yet he’d walk in and
stand next to the bed morning daddy how
can you not respond to that and hearing
his voice when I’m away makes me want to
get home but some mornings he makes me
want to go out as well but that’s the
beauty of it really he’s my little boy
he’s a new beginning cancer was a new
beginning and the accident was a new
beginning every day is a new beginning
every day is a new challenge every day
is something that allows us to become
bigger and better than we already are I
think part of the problem that we have
often is that and there’s lots of
sayings out there if your dreams aren’t
big enough that people love them then
they’re not big enough it’s not about
how big your dream is it’s how about how
you get there it’s how you work out how
you’re going to get there which is why
for the first time openly I’m quite
happy to stand there and saying 2019 I’m
going to win the toughest bike race in
the world I’m going to go back to
America in 2019 I’m going to do the race
across America which is going to
basically involve me riding 3,000 miles
dates but how do we get there so how do
we get there
well it’s quite simple really we look at
the fact we’ve got to ride 3,000 miles
in 10 days or quicker and then we say
okay we’re going to do this event we’re
going to do that event we’re going to do
300 miles in a day we’re going to do the
seven-day world-record which is 3,000
kilometers in seven days we’re going to
do Portugal north to south which is four
hundred sixty miles in 24 hours I’m
going to do Falmouth to London we’re
going to do London to Paris which I’ve
done in 14 hours I’m going to see if I
can do it quicker than that
once you’ve done something you know that
you can go on to do even greater things
because I’ve said already we are all
amazing human beings we’re all capable
of doing this and the reason that I use
one step at a time is because literally
that was how I got to where I am now I
wiggled my toes I couldn’t move in
hospital I couldn’t physically move down
up the bed I could move down the bed
really well I could not get back up the
bed I could wiggle my toes and over time
I could wiggle my fingers and then over
time I could move my ankles and I
remember the first time I ever moved my
legs the first time I remember that
night I just moved them first time I
stood up I stood up for 10 seconds you
see what I’ve been through over that
period of time is no different to what
anybody else has ever been through
ok the cancer thing not everybody’s been
through that I’ve really been through
the coma thing but they’re learning to
walk they’re learning to eat the
learning to function the learning to
ride a bike we’ve all done it
differences I did it at 28 and I
remember every single second of every
single day that I had to go through that
process I remember using the Zimmer
frame when you did it you used a plastic
toy with a handle on the back of it when
you learn to pick yourself up you use a
piece of furniture or using the nurse so
different we all sit there and we talk
to our children
just one more P one more P Freddie
that’s all you got to eat one more P one
more step one more cent
it’s one more calculation one more mile
one more drink Arnold Schwarzenegger or
I said one more rep so many analogies
out there that we can use they’re there
for us to take them hand by hand but
often we read them and we joke
I wrote the red one yesterday which was
on a card in AG in a shop round the
corner which was the caterpillar thought
it was about to die before it turned
into a butterfly I’m definitely no
Buffalo but I know that we can achieve
amazing things I know we’re capable of
achieving anything that we possibly want
to believe to achieve is the best
sentence I think or best wording I think
I’ve ever heard because if you believe
it you can achieve it and there are
thousands upon thousands of great people
out there in this world that have shown
us that that is possible that is the
government thank
you
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