Welcome to the “Blood, tears and a bigmoose” podcast. I'm Mark - a mildly overweight middle aged man - or MOWMAM for short (more on that later..). I'm your host and I'll take you through the trials and tribulations of the bigmoose Castle2castle cycling challenge. I'm joining a fab team of about 50 other riders from all over - Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Netherlands and the UK and already, we've all become close enough to talk about our poor preparation, where we can hire an electric bike, and which is the best bum cream to soothe the chafing in those intimate areas that 200 miles on a bike seat tends to cause - apparently there's loads of different types of 'bum butter' out there - who knew...?? The challenge itself is not just about the ride, we have each committed ourselves to raising £1000 each for the fantastic charity 'bigmoose'. A team that exists to support better mental health - for more on the team, check out the link in the show notes to every episode. If you're already motivated to donate - go over to my justgiving page by using the easy to remember link - ' www.donatetomark.online ' and donate what you can - this link will be there on every episode.. yep, I'm making it really easy to part with your money..! - easy to remember - www.donatetomark.online .. Come and subscribe to the podcast - I'll bring you along with me, introduce you to the team and we'll tell you our reasons for doing the challenge - many of us have our own experiences with mental health difficulties, either personally or through friends and family and we all want to help break the stigma of silence. Everyone deserves better mental health, but often in darker moments, we struggle to see that. ..and if nothing else, youll probably witness a bunch of poorly prepared, well meaning people get reduced to broken blubbering wrecks.. maybe that's worth a listen..? So.. don't forget - donate using the easy to remember link - www.donatetomark.online !