I’m going for a bike ride on Sunday. Sounds like the sort of thing I’d normally do, I guess. But this one is a bit different. I’m doing something called the Hell of the North, starting and finishing in Ilkley, and taking in some of Yorkshire’s toughest hills. Over 110km it will pack in around 7,000 feet of climbing, which is significantly more than is possible to find in this part of London, and thus considerably more than anything I’ve done before. And, as someone who absolutely WILL NOT get on a bike if there is the slightest gust of headwind or teeniest drop of rain, if the weather gets all Yorkshire autumnal on me, I’m not going to like it at all.

So why am I doing this? Well, partly because Dan asked me to do it, and I’m not sure I can say no to Dan. Dan is one of the founders of Le Cure, who’ve been raising money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity by doing daft bike rides since 2014, when one of their friends was diagnosed with breast cancer. And having just recently lost a friend to that same disease - a running club colleague, a mum and al round brilliant human being gone far far too young - it is a cause I’m really feeling right now.

You probably know I do lots of exercise, I’m not going to lie and pretend I’m unfit - although I’m never uninjured any more. So I hopefully will be able to drag myself round, even on just one fully-functioning leg. As such, I find asking for sponsorship really awkward and embarrassing, even for the very best of causes, like this. So I’m not asking. But if after reading this far you do feel you want to donate, I’m certainly not going to stop you.