David O’Rourke

I work as a customer services advisor for Aegon in Edinburgh and live in West Lothian. I’m married to Liz and we have a little boy Hayden, born June 2007.

I started riding in 2001 with a CG125 until Liz treated me to a direct access course for my 30th birthday and so an upgrade to a Honda CB500 followed shortly after. I now have Kawasaki Ninja and get out as often as I can (or the wife lets me!). 

In 2003 we moved from Dorset back up to Scotland and I rode my Honda the 500 miles in one day. It was a long trip – and we’ll be doing this kind of distance everyday for 10 days – ouch!

I am an avid follower of super bikes and MotoGP  – our cats are even named Rossi and Bayliss! I followed Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s ‘Long Way Round’ and ‘Long Way Down’ programmes with envy. But then inspiration struck – I could do my very own mini-adventure around Britain!

As you’ll see from ‘the reason’ section of this site, this journey is very personal to me. My dad died last August to lung cancer and I wanted to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care and Macmillan Cancer Support in his memory. My dad became a keen follower of super bikes in his later years and would often watch the races with me. I hope he’ll be watching down on us as we travel round Britain with a nod of approval.

Chris Smith

I work for City of Edinburgh Council as a Senior Environmental Warden currently based in the City Centre Team. I'm a proud dad of a daughter called Charlotte who is 6 and for my sins Caroline (aka Boss lady) keeps us all in line and likes to ride pillion when we get a chance.

I have been riding bikes about 4 years now and worked my way up from a 600cc Bandit to my current bike, a new Yamaha FJR 1300, which I'm using to tour with. Since I passed my test, Martin and I have toured all over Europe, as part of a small group of friends wanting to see what's out there.

This charity run was something that David had planned and we came on board later, not only to help, but to support him on this massive task. I think everyone has at some point been touched by cancer, if not themselves then friends or family members. I have lost family to this disease which has fuelled a desire to do this run and ask all of you reading this to help us make a difference. Both Martin and I have worked on a charity run before doing the Triple Peaks Challenge for the British Heart Foundation so it's nice to do something worthwhile again.

I too have watched the Long Way Down and the Long Way Round which shows what friendship can achieve when like minds meet. I have often thought that Martin and I have a similar outlook to Charlie and Ewan, even down to Martin coming from South of the border like Charlie. As for David I have only known him for a few years but already we have become good friends and constantly laugh at (or is that with) him over his terrible jokes. David has asked to borrow my radio equipment when we are on the road and I'm honestly not sure I want to be riding along listening to his jokes.

Sorry mate your patter is terrible

Martin Allen

Set down from the apple cart at the age of three... I started my biking career very early on. My Dad had always been a biker (currently riding a Pan European) and I got my first bike, a PW50 at about five years old. I distinctly remember trips to the local woods and much falling off and clouds of blue smoke!

I got my license and first 'proper' bike when I went to university in 1996. I lived a fair distance away and decided that for the £30 a week it was costing on the train I'd get my bike license and a loan so I could at least be paying for something. My first bike was a Kawasaki AR125 although I also had a few rides out on the Suzuki GT380 Triple we had at the time (when it was actually running!).

These days, 30 is rapidly approaching and I'm a PR Consultant with Trimedia, one of the country's largest full service PR agencies working on a wide number of accounts. I live in Falkirk with Emma, affectionately know as the Ginger Ninja, and currently ride a ZX6-R Green Ninja. The fact I also have a tuned ubaru Impreza in no way says 'mid-life crisis'. I've had the ZX6-R for about seven years. I've tried quite a few bikes but as I'm 6ft most sports bikes aren't a good fit! The European Tours I've organised for the past few years have seen us cover 3000 miles in a week fully loaded with luggage (although some may have sneaked in the Pan's top box).

An awful sense of humour keeps me going and I have done charity work for a number of different groups, both through my profession and by personal efforts. Tjis inlcudes competing in the Edinburgh Marathon amongst other things for Mercy Corp, a group which helps people in Khazakstan who have essentially been the subject of a terrible human experiment in radiation (please read more about it) and as such suffer very high levels of cancer. It is time to suppoort those in this country facing similar issues and I am proud to be supporting David in this trip.