Last week I was cycling in Mallorca in the sun, whilst there I received an email from Paul Loftus, the main man behind the organisation of The Fred Whitton Cycle Challenge. He had been going through Just Giving sites and had worked out that I had raised the most money this year, £4306. As a thank you he invited me to attend the special dinner and dance they were holding 27th October, this was to celebrate raising £500 000 for charity over the last 13 years. Sarah Storey and her husband Barney Storey (both multiple gold medal winners at the Paralympics ) were attending as special guests. Oh what a lovely thing to look forward to after our holiday. So all dressed up we headed to The Castle Green Hotel on Kendal. There were a lot of people there, all involved in the Fred Whitton somehow. I made myself known to Paul and his wife, they were delighted I could attend and expressed their thanks for the fundraising I had done. Only 57 women out of 1370 riders completed the ride this year. I was then very honored to be introduced to Sarah Storey who was lovely. We had a good chat about the tough challenge and cycling in general. She really is an awesome cyclist and I was a bit star gazed!

During the evening lots of thanks and mentions were given to various people and businesses that had helped and it was clear that behind the Fred Whitton each year is an army of helpers. In total £85000 was split between 4 charities and cheques were presented to them, £45000 went to Macmillan which made me extremely happy. There was an amazing raffle with signed jerseys of Victoria Pendleton and Brad Wiggins ( which was won and auctioned on the night for £350) and lots more.

And then there was me. Unexpectedly I was announced and had to collect from Sarah Storey a certificate and an amazing goody bag full of things from Saddleback and a £50 M&S voucher ( new pants!) To be honest I was a bit overwhelmed, I didn't set out to raise the money to be rewarded for it, the reward was being healthy enough to do the challenge. I wanted to pay Macmillan back for paying my rent 10 years ago and the Macmillan representative at the dinner said that I had more than done that. Job done.

We danced till midnight and went home buzzing, what an evening.

If you think I did ok to be one of the 57 women out of 1370 entrants to complete the Fred Whitton this year you can still donate to Macmillan here

Photo kindly taken and given by Steve Fleming, click here to see more