Following my diagnosis in 2019 I soon realised there was little to no information or support for newly diagnosed adults with ADHD.
I was given my medication and a short list of links that were somewhat lacking for what I needed.
In 2022 I discovered a podcast that felt like it had been written about me. The ADHD Adults Podcast gave me evidence based information that allowed me to re-learn myself, accept myself and start to learn how best to live my life with this new information.
After a year of learning and at the point of accepting who I am I was ready for the world to know, I was no longer going to hide behind the mask.
It was mentioned by James in the podcast that they had been asked to write a psychoeducation course for people with ADHD for NHS digital. However, they didn't have the funding to do so.
That was the moment "The Big ADHD Fundraiser" became an idea.
Of course I can raise the money to fund this course, I had no doubt about that but what can I do?
The idea of riding a bike from Bristol to London hit my brain and wouldn't leave. My wife (Claire) offered to do the ride with me to show her support for me. Claire has been an integral part since that moment.
I contacted ADHDadultUK to let them know what we were doing, we received lots of support from them and that helped to get the word out there.
After months of training and organising it was finally time to set off.
6th October 2023 we set off from Bristol Temple Meads on our 180 mile cycle along the Kennet and Avon canal and would arrive in central London 8th October to align with ADHD Awareness Month.
It was just myself and Claire on year one and we knew just a handful of people within the ADHD community.
I knew the amount of money we were able to raise that year would not be enough to fund what we had set out to achieve and for me I wasn't prepared to leave something unfinished.
The thought of making this an annual event entered my mind and planning started right away. We were only on day 2 but my mind was on year 2.
Early 2024 I had a message from ADHDadultUK introducing me to Rosie from ADHD Untangled. She was looking at doing an event and I was planning year 2, we decided to team up and go by the name "Team Untangled".
Not only were we raising money for ADHDadultUK we were also raising it for ADHD Liberty who work within the prison justice system.
Growing from 2 riders to 10 riders in such a short space of time, cycling across Europe and ensuring everything was in place generated so much work. The logistics behind organising 10 ADHD riders and ensuring they had everything they needed took it's toll but we did it.
We set off from central London 27th September and cycled to Amsterdam where we arrived 29th September to bring us into ADHD Awareness Month. 10 Riders, 180 miles, 3 days and a massive amount of money raised.
Understanding how difficult the logistics were the previous year we decided to keep this year's event within the UK. This also made it more accessible.
We decided to add extra miles to the event as we wanted to have a reason behind the route this year. As there was a new charity being launched that is setting up peer support groups in Scotland, England and Wales we decided that we should ride through all 3 countries and so we did.
ADHDAF+ has also adopted leopard print as their colors so to give them more publicity we would also adopt the leopard print for our shirt design and support vehicle.
10 riders set off from Ayr in Scotland 1st August to ride 288 miles and arrive in Wrexham 3rd August.
This challenge was not only longer but the terrain was brutal but as a team we pulled together to support each other and again raised an amazing amount of money.
Plans for 2026 are already being discussed and I am looking forward to being able to fill this space.
Look out for updates in announcements