Testing the limits of his physical endurance is always on the mind of London-born, Indian-origin neurologist Dr.Jameen Sreedharan, who undertook a 700-mile cycling tour of Europe along with three friends to raise resources to funds for Motor Neuron Disease Association (MND) recently. The neurologist and his team started in the United Kingdom and cycled through Europe and finally ended the trip in Switzerland.
“Starting from Kent, the United Kingdom on July 24, 2019, we arrived in Geneva on August 1, 2019.
We had one day off in Paris.” The trip was quite eventful with, “One of our team had heatstroke on Day 1 and had to miss the rest of the day. She was strong but had never experienced this before. The heat was also tough on Day 2 when it got up to 45C! The day had to be cut short and the organisers started collecting people on the bus. A lot of people were pulling out due to heatstroke. It was getting dangerous. The next day was a lot better, but it was still 35C.” “As we entered Paris another member of our team had a crash, colliding with a car. She hurt her finger, but no worse damage. On the last day as we went up towards the Jura mountains, one of our team nearly had a mental breakdown and felt she could not cycle to the top. Fortunately, she found the strength to make the final ascent, and with encouragement from another member of our team she made it to the top.”
“Then we had an amazing, sweeping downhill trip, which itself was dangerous as there were a lot of hairpin bends. But it was all very exciting,” Dr.Jameen said. “We cycled through the Somme area, a place of great historic significance as this is where a lot of soldiers died in the First World War and there are lots of military burial sites,” he added.
For the tough cycling tour, Dr.Jameen trained for about three months and took advice from cyclists. He bought a carbon road bike and went cycling two to three times a week, working on spending several hours on the bike at a time. This included a few long trips of 50-90miles a day, but also cycling around Richmond Park in London.
About his three tour mates, Dr. Jameen said, “Nikhil Sharma, another consultant neurologist, and his student Izzy, a Ph.D. student. They are researching MND and are based at University College London. Then there was Ella, my student, who was working in my lab at King’s College London. She is a medical student. Yes, they are all cycling enthusiasts. Nik and Izzy have done London to Paris before. Nik organised the trip and led us through the journey. Izzy is a sports enthusiast and does powerlifting. Ella is an enthusiastic cyclist and runner as well. They all taught me how to ride a bike!”.
Accommodation during the trip was taken care of by the organisers who had booked a different hotel each night. They took the cyclist’s luggage between the hotels as well so that they could focus on cycling. Each day the team traveled an average of 85 miles and the maximum distance cycled in a day was 110 miles. The tour took them through many well-known and not so known cities and towns. “Paris and Geneva are the big ones obviously, but we went through Calais in France, the medieval town of Arra, the town of Compiegne, and also Sens,” Regarding resources for the tour, the team raised sponsorship money. “We made our own fundraising pages and harangued friends and relatives to give us money!
The money paid for the trip and also went to the Motor Neuron Disease Association (MND Association).” After finishing the trip the team flew back and the bikes returned in a truck. Until the next time! A neurologist with an interest in MND, a terrible degenerative condition that causes paralysis and death, Dr. Jameen is undertaking research to better understand the causes of MND and eventually develop treatments. A sports enthusiast, the doctor says, “I like cricket, football, badminton and a lot of other stuff like gardening and design. I play the cello a bit just for relaxation; nothing professional!”
Dr. Jameen’s parents hail from Varkala in Kerala and had been living in London for the past four decades. “I was born in London soon after my parents came over from Varkala. I come to India every year. We have a home there that we built over 20 years ago.” Intro Indian origin neurologist and friends cycle to raise funds for MND.
https://tourismindiaonline.com/every-interaction-is-a-moment-of-truth-to-attain-service-excellence/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iveNUQM4fcE
