Hi, my name's Ken Wells, I've set this GoFundMe up to help my friend Eddie. I've known Eddie and his wonderful family his whole life, he was born with cerebral palsy, when he was 1 year old I joined a team of volunteers (amateur physios basically) that helped him with his physio to give him the best chance of mobility as he grew up. I fell in love with this little fella, when he got a little bit older, he would come and sit on my wall, waiting for me to come home from work, sometimes with his pals, sometimes on his own, and then the adventures began. I would push him down the road on a skateboard or down the stairs on a mattress...anything that had a little flavour of danger and was the antithesis of his regimented daily life that had to be due to his disability. I've stayed close friends with Eddie all these years since, over the years I've managed to get him on a surfboard in Portugal and a horse, we've also been cinema buddies and seen a fair share of films together, some atrocious and some a little bit less atrocious.

Eddie is never one to shy away from a challenging situation, he put himself through college and University, spent several months in Tanzania, helping to raise awareness and profile for disability in Africa.

It's fair to say we've had a lot of hilarity over the years, however in more recent times the mood has really changed, about a year ago Eddie fell into a serious depression, his usual effervescent and hopeful self, gave way to a much more sombre state, a kind of hopelessness set in. There seemed to be a realisation that this 'normal' life that he had always strived for, wasn't arriving. In actual fact things were getting worse, after a bad fall and undiagnosed fracture of his spine, Eddie developed osteoporosis. As you may know, this is a deteriorating condition that weakens the bones, they begin to fracture on their own accord. An opportunity has come up for treating this with surgery.

I've often been shocked at the cost of living with disability, it's been such an eye opener to me, an hour of essential physiotherapy costs him £200 and a similar cost for other types of therapy that he needs.

I wanted to do something to help put a smile back on Eddie's face so I have decided to cycle as far away as I possibly can from him (to Scotland) with a friend. I leave tomorrow (I will be late guaranteed) on (Sunday the 21st January 2023) and I would be incredibly grateful if would join me in my effort to contribute anything you can to this fund for my friend Eddie. Thank you so much on behalf of me and Eddie, i'll keep you updated on facebook on the way.