RideLondon, Surrey 100 and the Fairy Queen Dream Team

On 10 August 2014, 85 cyclists will take on the second ever RideLondon-Surrey 100, to raise money for Moorfields Eye Hospital. The riders have places with the hospital’s charity, Moorfields Eye Charity, and aim to raise over £65,000 by cycling the 100 mile route from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park all the way through the picturesque Surrey countryside and back to the Mall.

Taking on the challenge again this year is the Fairy Queen Dream Team, a 21-strong team of cyclists dedicated to raising as much money as possible towards research into the rare genetic eye disorder Aniridia.

In the event’s inaugural year, the Fairy Queen Dream Team signed up to raise money for a young girl called Ella, the daughter of team member James Chapple. Ella suffers from a rare chromosome disorder, which includes Aniridia, and in the last few years has experienced a long list of health problems including the risk of losing her sight. In respect of Ella’s courage and determination and in the hope of advancement in Aniridia research, the team raised almost £6,000 and aim to beat that figure this year.

Ella’s mother, Elly Chapple, set up a fundraising campaign, ‘Shine a Light on Aniridia’, four years ago to help raise awareness of the condition and has so far raised nearly £80,000 for research into Aniridia at Moorfields Eye Hospital.  The huge sum, along with fund-matching from Moorfields Eye Hospital, financed the appointment of Dr Victoria Tovell, a post-doctoral research scientist to work alongside existing researcher Professor Julie Daniels in exploring the significance of stem cell activity in Aniridia sufferers.

Like last year, the money raised from the ride will go towards funding Professor Daniels’ research to help ensure that the potentially sight-saving work continues to help Ella and others affected by the degenerative eye disease.

So far, the Fairy Queen Dream Team have donned their cycling gear for a few short rides and have organised three training trips over the next few weeks where they will be tackling 50-90 mile routes of rolling hills and stunning countryside.  They will also be modelling their own specially designed cycling kit at the 2014 RideLondon-Surrey 100 event in Ella’s favourite colour, baby pink.

Richard Gribbin, Captain of the Fairy Queen Dream Team, said: “We can’t wait to ride the 100 miles from London to Surrey for Moorfields Eye Charity again this year. Our training is going well so far and we are looking forward to making an entrance in our baby pink cycling outfits.

“Raising as much money as possible for this worthy cause is really important to us and with the team increasing to 20 this year, we are aiming to raise at least £10,000 and hope to raise much, much more”.