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li fe cycle m a n
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2 5,000 m il e
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Stewarton’s LifeCycle Man achieved his
goal of riding 25,000 miles in support of
kids with neuroblastoma on 1st July. If
you heard whooping and cheering up by
the Millhouse on that Friday afternoon,
then it was Steve Taylor completing his
last ceremonial mile around the town.
606 days at just under 42 miles day
average in six weeks short of three years,
all year round and in all weathers over the
Fenwick Muir. 1.2m feet of climbing and
1.25m calories burnt on the road.
But more important than that,
the message about neuroblastoma
has spread around the world as
a result of Steve’s escapade. The
LifeCycleForNeuroblastoma flag has
been to America twice, Australia, Poland
and Spain along the way, and the journey
has been followed by over 700 people
across the globe.
Now that it’s over, you might be forgiven
in thinking that that’s the end of the
story. Far from it.
For the past 18 months, Steve has been
actively following Eileidh’s Journey,
featuring wee Eileidh Paterson, a
four year old tot from Forres. Eileidh
was diagnosed with high risk stage
4 neuroblastoma in May 2014 and
underwent 12 months of gruelling
treatment before embarking on a clinical
trial in the United States in June 2015.
It was hoped that the trial, which has
had encouraging results, would enhance
Eileidh’s chances of the disease recurring.
Sadly, that has not been the case and she
is now fighting for her life a second time
in hospital in Aberdeen.
Having passed through the end of his
personal milestone, Steve has now gone
global with LifeCycleForNeuroblastoma
and created a virtual club of the same
name on the running and cycling app
Strava (which runs on both PC’s and
smartphones).
The aim of the Strava club is to recruit
cyclists all over the world and ride
a million miles to further enhance
awareness of the disease. The vast
majority of people have never heard
of neuroblastoma: but a lot of people,
particularly in Ayrshire, have heard
of Vanessa Riddle. Vanessa beat
neuroblastoma twice, and took her
Standard Grade exams this summer.
Vanessa is living proof of what can be
achieved through dedication, support and
a fighting spirit.
When people ask what is neuroblastoma,
Steve gives the simplest of answers: it’s
essentially cancer of the nervous system
in small children. There is no known
reason why it strikes one child and not
another, but a hundred children a year in
the UK are diagnosed at high risk stage
four. Fifty per cent of those children die.
The race is on to understand the dis