Sometimes you find that the stars just align.
One day, a few months back in a flurry of tidying, I came across a letter from Jodi. The Lees and my family moved to Saigon on the same day, in fact on the same plane, and Jodi and I met during our first week living there. It was the beginning of a treasured, but all too short, friendship.
A couple of days after reading Jodi’s letter I was sitting on my spin bike at the gym visualising a race in order to keep the pedals turning. Having witnessed Nick and his fellow riders come in to Victor Harbour and then into Adelaide 4 years ago, a Little Black Dress Classic ride was, however, not in my sights at all. It looked way too hard.
Then, unbelievably, the next day there was a note from Nick asking us to join this year’s Little Black Dress Classic. While the sane part of me was saying “No”, how could the insane part resist given the fabulous work that he and his team have done building The Jodi Lee Foundation and raising awareness of the benefits of early screening for bowel cancer?

So, Jodi, the stars have aligned and the physical pain of training has begun. What we will experience on this ride will be no comparison to what you went through, or what your family and friends went through losing you too early. That simply hurt.
For those of you reading this, while the rest of us are sweating and swearing, please support The Jodi Lee Foundation and please honour all of those who have lost their battle by grabbing a bowel cancer test kit or go to see a doctor.
It could simply save your life. And when it does, those 950kms will seem all the more worthy.