Meet the team

In November 2003, Les Niewiara was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Following surgical removal of a tumour (attached to his pancreas), Les underwent 6 months of chemotherapy. Towards the end of his treatment, Les became involved with Pancreatic Cancer UK, which was then a support group, and immediately published his case study on their website (click here to see case study), and started providing telephone support to newly diagnosed people based on his recent experiences.

It was during this period that Les came up with the idea of the Bike to the Future 2004 bike ride in order to raise money for, and awareness of the need to tackle the appallingly low survival rate for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The ride raised £16,700.

Following the ride, Les continued his involvement with Pancreatic Cancer UK, and the great work it was doing in providing support and advocacy for newly diagnosed patients. Les became one of the official patient contacts for Pancreatic Cancer UK, which in 2005 became a fully registered charity, as well as presenting his case study and experiences at training courses for hospital staff, meetings of patient groups and national and regional meetings of medical practitioners. In 2006, Les ran the Reading Half Marathon and raised a further £375 for the charity.

Les was rediagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2007, and underwent radiotherapy treatment. It was following the completion of this treatment that Les came up with the idea of his second major fundraising bike ride - Bike to the Future 2008 - 'Ride around the World'.

Throughout his treatment, Les has continued to work and carry on as normal a life as possible (albeit against the backdrop of 'living with cancer'), which has included continuing to coach and manage his daughter's youth football team, continuing his active lifestyle and even restarting, after a 'retirement' of 11 years, his own 11-a-side football career by joining a local veterans team.

Les is married to Sue and has two daughters Rosa and Immi. Les has recently completed a book of his experiences spanning the 14 months from his first symptoms in October 2003 to the completion of the Bike to the Future 2004 ride in November 2004. Les will be self publishing the book, and will be selling it through the Pancreatic Cancer UK website as a way of continuing to raise funds for the charity.

My name is Dave Smithson, otherwise known as "Smit" to my close friends. I am a 29-year-old primary school teacher and live with my wife to be Jordanna, who is Les' youngest niece. I was involved in the original "Bike to the Future 04" ride after Les' sister volunteered me for it, however after completing a momentous ride; meeting a great bunch of people and being involved in helping to raise awareness for the charity it was a fantastic experience which was unforgettable. I am now raring to go to and excited to be involved in the new "Bike to Future 08". Plus, I get to ride my new bike that doesn't weigh a tonne!

My name is Jordanna Pitchford and I am Les's (Uncle Les to me!) youngest niece. I am a 27 year old Probation Officer and was involved in the original 'Bike to the Future 2004', however did not partake in the cycling, taking a more 'laid back' approach to the event by acting as a designated driver as part of the support team. I have recently purchased a bike with the persuasion of my fiancé, Smit and made the decision to become involved in 'Bike to the Future 2008', not just driving but cycling. Apart from a 'few falls' on my first bike ride I am now raring to go and am hoping to raise as much support and awareness for the Charity as I possibly can.

I've known Les and Sue for 20 years now and our families have spent skiing holidays and Christmases together. The kids went to the same school and have grown up together.

I was part of the original BTTF with responsibility for logistics - must have been because I work in logistics for H&M. I have too many happy memories of that ride to share here, but what does stick in the mind was the sheer unrestrained goodwill generated by everyone who came into contact with the event - our families, graphics designers, the sponsors, the PR machine, the back-up team in the van, Les's family for putting us up in Bolton, the hospital staff who turned out to meet us at the end of the ride and the camaraderie of us, the cyclists - a bunch of lads who simply wanted to support Les.

After the 2004 ride I kept the wheels spinning and joined some of the other weekend rides - one was a bike weekend in Wales on a wet November Saturday where we conquered 'The Beast' - a superb 38km route for mountain bikers.

When Les told me of this latest BTTF adventure, I knew instantly that I wanted to do it, so a couple of weeks ago, over a curry and beer at their house I signed up as the fourth member. I'm doing this ride to support Les in his quest to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer and increase the amount of money for research.

I got home and checked with my wife, Rose, if I'd actually agreed to this 'madcap' scheme. "Oh, yes" she said. Once it had sunk in I thought I'd better get the bike out of the shed, blow the tyres up and get riding!

This is a picture of me and my wife, Joy at the Blackpool 10k recently together with my daughter Tanja an International Cyclist. I was delighted to be able to run in Blackpool and to ask for YOUR SUPPORT.

I was lucky enough to 'meet' Les by phone when I was recovering from my first bout of surgery in 2005. Like Les I am a survivor of Pancreatic Cancer - one of the most deadly forms of the disease.

I 'found' Les when a friend saw a colourful and upbeat 'flyer' Les had produced for the notice-board of Hammersmith Hospital where he was treated. I didn't know then that this is typical Les - turning negatives into positives is his stock-in-trade (or is that stocking trade!). I was totally delighted to have found another survivor. Through lack of sufficient resources, PC survivors are few and far between and this is WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.

I found a few more survivors later on when I got in touch with the pancreaticcancer.org.uk website and indeed found Les' Case Study which stimulated me to write mine. My Case Study is on that site too; yet another example of Les in action.

I had three rounds of surgery, chemotherapy and radio-chemotherapy over the period from November 2004 to May 2006 as well as countless procedures of one kind or another. The mental support I got from Les, PCUK and my dear wife Joy over this period is immeasurable.

I was encouraged to set some goals so I decided that my goals would be sporting (as I come from the sporting Allen family, my daughter Tanja is a GB Tri-athlete and Cyclist and my wife a local superstar runner-see picture). My first goal was to get back to cross country running which I did, however slowly in 2005 and then to run my 22nd Great North Run in 2006 which I ran with my son Daniel to raise funds for pancreatic Cancer UK (pancreaticcancer. org.uk). Then finally to get into the GB Age Group (over 60) Triathlon team for the World Triathlon Championships in 2007 - which I did in Hamburg.

On this journey to the 'Worlds' my fantastic surgeon from UCH, Arj Shankar challenged me to race him in the London 10k (www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/PCBritish10k.htm)

Les and I both believe that setting goals is important to living, and sport is a great way to fight the disease - see the WCRF report which indicates EXERCISE to be most beneficial (www.wcrf-uk.org).

I have got into the GB team again for the 2008 Tri World Championships this time in Vancouver in June and after this I shall be concentrating on the ride to Krakow home of two important families - the Niewiara's and Pope Paul.

Naturally I shall be relying as usual on my wife again as she has volunteered to come along with us to drive my car in support and generally care for us. What a treasure!