Hundreds pedal down coast in aid of MUG cancer charity

The 12-mile ride was organised by the charity Male Uprising Guernsey, a cancer awareness charity.

The route started at Saumarez Park and headed towards Grandes Rocques via the Saumarez nature trail, then along to Rousse, L’Ancresse and Bordeaux on the coastal path, before ending up at the Vale Castle for an after party with music, entertainment and refreshments.

Along the way there were some man-made fun obstacles, such as ‘zig-zags’ and ‘shark’s teeth’, especially for the ambitious mountain bikers.

One of the organisers, Ian Brown, said around 400 cyclists had signed up, and he was delighted with the buzz at the start.

‘It’s a privilege to be able to ride on some of these coastal paths, particularly the nature trail here which is not normally open to cyclists, and our obligation to the landowners and the States of Guernsey is that we let people go off in manageable numbers so that there’s not a congestion of riders on the course.’

Mr Brown overcame prostate cancer, and he said that cancer will touch everyone at some point during their lives, whether it is to themselves, their family or friends.

Men often have a tendency to play down symptoms, and Mr Brown wants people to talk about their concerns more, and be proactive with their health.

‘It’s inherent in men for some reason, we think that problems will sort themselves out and they don’t go and get checked early and the whole point of MUG is to get men to take ownership of their health and their issues, and have a chat with someone, chat with your workmates, chat with your neighbour, chat with your dad, chat with your son, but just chat about these things and if there’s something that needs checking get checked early, because early diagnosis leads to much better outcomes.

‘Wives and girlfriends and daughters need to nag, keep nagging, because I know people who’ve been saved by their wives persuading them to get checked and they found cancers before it got too bad.’