Ben Myers raises £1500 for Little Bleeders
Ben is a passionate 13 year old cyclist. He only climbed onto a road bike for the first time in March 2020, when lockdown prevented him from playing his usual team sports. Since then, it has been impossible to get him off his bike.
Watching cycling has become another favourite pastime for Ben and he has devoured hours of footage watching his heroes racing the Tour De France, The Giro D’Italia and recently, the World Cup Cyclocross. Ben was delighted to see Alex Dowsett winning Stage 8 of the Giro and even more excited when he realised that Alex is a local hero. He took it upon himself to learn about Alex’s condition, haemophilia, and realised that not everyone can access sport in the same way he does.
Ben would love to be able to help other children to participate in sport and experience the fun, excitement and rush that he feels when taking part. He set himself the challenge of riding 500 miles during lockdown to raise funds for the Little Bleeders Sports Fund. Very quickly he realised that 500 miles was too easy! So, he lifted his challenge to cycle 1000 miles and raise £700. Ben wanted his message to other children to be to take every opportunity and try as many different sports as they can; you never know if you will enjoy it until you try and you never know where it might lead.
His challenge came to an end in March 2021, after cycling over 1200 miles and raising a whopping £1500. Founder Alex Dowsett, said “I was so pleased to hear about Ben’s challenge and when I learnt about how much he raised I was stunned. When I created Little Bleeders I wanted to support young people with blood disorders to “move more and be more” and to have supporters like Ben is wonderful. I can’t wait to see him on the training circuits in Essex!”
You can follow Ben’s cycling journey over on Instagram, @b_myers_58
