A group of Island bikers are getting into gear to raise money for Earl Mountbatten Hospice.
Thirty members of Wight Bikes And Trikes, better known as Wight BATs, will be leaving their motorbikes behind to walk the eight miles from Sandown to Shide for Walk the Wight on Sunday 11th May.
One of their members, Paul Alborough, 39, a bus driver from Ryde, recently lost his wife to cancer. Jo Alborough, 40, a shop worker, had been feeling unwell for a year, before tests revealed that it was their worst case scenario.
Paul said:
“It was cancer, but it had spread, so they didn’t know if it was cervical or ovarian cancer. We were told that she had two or three months to live. But 15 days later, she was gone. It was unbelievable”.
Jo spent her final days being cared for in the comfortable surrounding of her own home, thanks to Earl Mountbatten’s Hospice at Home team.
Paul said of the team:
“They were brilliant. Towards the end, they came four times a day, cleaning her up and sorting her out. It made it easier for me, knowing that there was someone at the end of the phone. And when she died, on 30 March 2013, the Hospice and BATs got me through it.”
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Shortly after her death, Paul and his biker friends made a last minute decision to register for Walk the Wight. They did the Flat Walk in her memory, and now they’re doing it again, in T-shirts bearing Jo’s name.
On Sunday 27 April the bikers did a memorial ride, to fulfill Jo’s ‘bucket list’. Sadly she didn’t live long enough to pay a final visit to Monkey World or see Isle of Wight Zoo – but the bikers will be going there for her, and visiting her favourite spots across the Island. Every rider will be donating money to the Hospice, in her name.
A spokesperson for Earl Mountbatten Hospice says:
“We are so grateful to Wight BATs and everyone else who Walks the Wight to raise money for patient care. We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday 11 May.”
