Charlie Panayi has completed a 120km road cycle around the Isle of Wight in the 2nd of 10 challenges he has set himself to raise funds and awareness in memory of his sister, Zoe, who tragically lost her life to skin cancer some 3 years ago.
Zoe Panayi’s untimely passing occurred after a misdiagnosis resulted in delayed treatment for a malignant mole. Determined to honour her memory and raise awareness of their petition in a bid for a so-called “Zoe’s Law”, Charlie has embarked on a series of 10 challenges.
Zoe was advised to have a mole removed at a beauty clinic in 2020 after it was mistakenly diagnosed as non-malignant. Devastatingly, she later discovered that the mole was cancerous, and the disease had already spread. She sadly passed away a mere 55 days after the diagnosis on 29th May 2020 at the age of 26, leaving behind 2 young sons.
Last month, Charlie completed Walk The Wight for his 1st challenge and now he has completed his 2nd.
Describing it as possibly ‘the toughest’ challenge he will take on, Charlie had never sat on a road bike in his life before taking on the 120km challenge last Sunday (4th June).
He was accompanied by good friends Joe Driscoll and Sam Fryer and they set off around 08:30 heading clockwise around the Island from Cowes.
It was a steep learning curve for Charlie who had to learn on the job how to clip in and out of the pedals and how to use the brakes and gears. It was also a steep start to the ride as he found the 1st section relentlessly uphill and described himself hitting the wall after around 20 miles when he reached Brading.
Charlie said:
“I felt like I had nothing left to give at that point and in my head all I could think was ‘how am I going to do another 50 plus miles?’ Genuinely how I got through this wall…I thought about my sister and her last day alive. I saw my sister fight with everything she had in her final day to live so I thought, if she could give what she did, I can do a bike ride. This helped me push through the pain at this point, move through some gears and get it done.”
“From there I felt pretty good…flowing through to the 58 miles point without finding myself wondering how I can continue. Around 58 miles I hit another wall in Porchfield, however a caffeine gel shot Sam gave me what I needed to make it through to Cowes.”
Having completed his 2nd challenge, Charlie has 8 more to go starting with the 3 peaks challenge in July and followed by others including summiting Mount Kilimanjaro in November and trekking to Everest Base Camp next February.
You can find out more about Charlie’s challenges and donate to his cause on his fundraising page.
Your sister would be extremely proud. What a fantastic brother you are and also creating awareness at the same time. You’ve got this.