Hi, I'm Grant. I'm 43 and I have a condition called Multi-Focal Motor Neuropathy with Conduction Block. It is a degernative disease that destroys the myelin sheath around the motor neurons and currently stops the muscles in my hands from working properly. Basically my brain sends a signal, but it never gets to my fingers because the wiring has been damaged.

There is no known cure for my condition, but I'm very lucky because there is treatment available. In my case I have high-dose intravenous immunogloblin (IvIg) therapy for four days every eight weeks, my doctors tell me that this treatment is a type of chemotherapy. It certainly feels like a kind of chemotherapy, and keeps me off my bicycle for a couple of weeks while I recover.

I have chosen to support Action Medical Research, not only because they carry out research into several conditions and diseases that are very closely related to mine, namely Motor Neurone Disease and Guillain-Barré Syndrome - but also because they fund research into lots of other different diseases and get results.

In July 2005 I cycled a gruelling 300 miles over 4 days from London to Paris with Action Medical Research, and I raised £2,739 to help Action Medical Research fund more research programmes, hopefully they will one day provide the funding for whoever finds a cure for Multi-Focal Motor Neuropathy. They have had some other major successes in the past, you may of heard of them - or even benefited - polio vaccine, ultrasound scanning in pregnancy and the hip replacement operation to name just a few.

In June 2011 I cycled from London to Paris again, this time in 24 hours as a relay with my good friend Gavin, who I've ridden with on other charity events before. We raised just over £2000 for Scope.

Give what you can, and make sure you tick the Gift Aid box, so the charities I do these extreme events for can get another 28% back off the tax man.

If you are a company and you want to sponsor me by placing your logo, web address and phone number on my clothing please use the contact form on this website for more details about advertising opportunities.

What's Next?
My next event is a 5K run in Southport on 10th June 2012. My wife is running the 2K fun run at the same event too.

After much deliberation, I need to do a ride that is a whole lot more challenging. There is a ride I have in mind called L'Eroica, it's in the hills of Tuscany on a 200km route that is over 50% on dirt track. For the ride to be classed as "heroic" it must be done on a pre-1980 bike wearing period clothing. I will still be raising money for charity, but this is not a charity organised event. I do however need a pre-1980 bike to do the ride on, so if anyone out there has one going spare please contact me.

Olympic Torchbearer - 25th June 2012
Last year I was nominated as a possible candidate to carry the Olympic Torch for the London 2012 Games. The first I knew about it was when I received an email from BMW UK in August 2011. On 8th December I received an email from LOGOG telling me "Congratulations! You've been chosen to have your moment to shine and we are delighted to make you a conditional offer to be a London 2012 Olympic Torchbearer."

It's all very exciting, but I still couldn't tell anyone. Obviously I told family but had to keep it a secret from everyone else while LOCOG carried out a background check on me.

Then in January I received a communication from BMW inviting me to a Torchbearer's welcome day at Millbank Tower, London. My wife and I could go together, which was very exciting since it was our first engagement together. The day was fantastic and we were made to feel very special, I got to meet former Olympian, Steve Cram. We had some photos taken and I was interviewed on camera.

I've also been asked to answer some questions for the BMW Magazine, so if you are a BMW owner you may want to watch out for them being published.

On 19th March 2012 it was officially confirmed by LOCOG that on Monday, 25th June 2012 I will be carrying the Olympic flame as part of the Torchbearer relay (day 38) in Sheffield. Why Sheffield is a bit of a mystery to me, because at 60 miles away from my home it's not exactly local, but since BMW are very kindly providing me with a car and chauffeur to take me to and from the event it's not a big issue.