Training done. Ridiculous amount of kit bought and packed. Bike ready for shipping. Blog started. It can only mean one thing: we’re little more than a week away.

Next Friday myself and two of my oldest and bestest friends – step forward Geoff Curtis and Andrew Bailey – will embark on what is likely to be the greatest physical challenge any of us has ever attempted: cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End in just 16 days. Our planned route will take us the length of Britain via back roads, country lanes and cyclepaths – the small matter of 1050 miles. We’ll ascend over 58,000 vertical feet, twice the height of Mount Everest. And we’ll no doubt go through industrial quantities of Sudacrem in a bid to beat the saddle sores. Yikes.

But, for me at least, this is not just a physical challenge. Last February, my sister Mary and her boyfriend Pete were killed in a cycling accident in Thailand. It was a tragic end to a 19-month adventure that had taken them, by bike, from their home in Guernsey to the other side of the world – a cycling odyssey of over 24,000km through 24 countries. They were hit by a careless driver in a pick-up truck. It’s been a heartbreaking 16 months.

I cycle every day – as someone who only started driving in their 30s it’s been my primary mode of transport for most of my life – but getting back on the bike after their accident was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I felt vulnerable. I had panic attacks. One time I burst into tears on the roadside. But I wanted to reclaim cycling for myself, as something to enjoy rather than something to be feared; something positive, not something tragic. So I promised myself I’d take the trip I’d always talked about doing with Mary and Pete once they’d returned from their grand adventure: John O’Groats to Land’s End.

To a certain extent their deaths have provided me with something of a watershed moment. It’s encouraged me to grasp opportunities when they come up. To see more people I’ve been meaning to catch up with for ages. To not take friends and family for granted. Most of all, it’s taught me that life is for living. Their own journey – documented in the amazing blog twoonfourwheels.com – as well as the way they embraced life’s possibilities, is an ongoing inspiration.

And so for me this is as much a spiritual journey as it is a physical one. I’m riding both in memory of Mary and Pete, and because they have inspired me to get out and see something of the world. And if we can raise a little money along the way for a good cause (more about that in my next post), then so much the better.

Roll on next week.