Kilmarnock charity cyclists head to London

Jun 19 2009 by Colin Rutherford, Kilmarnock Standard

A KILMARNOCK pub was the starting point this week for a marathon bike ride to London to raise funds for research into ovarian cancer.

The 450-mile trip is in celebration of the life of Abby Kerr, whose life was claimed by the disease just last year at the age of 36.

Abby’s father, Jim Kerr, hailed for Hurlford, so Kilmarnock was selected as the perfect starting point for the run by her partner Chris Rowell who is undertaking the journey with another six of Abby’s friends.

Joining the magnificent seven as they set off from the Wheatsheaf Inn in Portland Street were Abby’s six-year-old daughter Rosalie and her mother Anna.

The cyclists journey will end at Bart’s hospital, where Abby spent her last days.

En route they will call at Harlow where she was born.

Chris described the idea for the sponsored ride as the fruit of “a drunken conversation”.

“Abby’s dad and all the Kerrs are originally from the Kilmarnock area and Barts is where Abby died,” he said.

“We thought it was an original way to remember Abby and at the same time raise some money.”

The riders will be raising cash for the Eve Appeal – a charity which specialises in funding research into ovarian cancer – which strikes 6600 women, 4400 of whom die, each year in the UK.

The fund-raising effort has already exceeded Chris’s expectations.

The original target was £1000, but with £5500 raised before they even set off, it has been increased to £10,000.

“We have had a great response from so many of Abby’s friends and people she used to work with,” he said.

He admitted, however: “The idea of the journey is a bit daunting.”

For the last six miles of the trip the cyclists will be joined by friends and family for the final leg to their journey to Barts, an initiative organised personally by six-year-old Rosalie, an enthusiastic supporter of her dad’s marathon cycle.

“I think it is good,” she said. “It would be good if the Eve Appeal could find a medicine for cancer.”

Abby Kerr was born in Harlow in 1972.

Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005, she died in October last year.

A primary school teacher – and also a teachers’ union and socialist activist – she met Chris at the age of 22.

Her father Jim, who latterly lived in Largs, died in 2003.

More information on the sponsored cycle can be found at www.kilmarnocktobarts.com

To make a donation, visit the website at www.justgiving.com/abbykerr