A recruitment consultant from Birmingham is taking on the ultimate cycling challenge to raise money for patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) after her friend, Leanne Maxwell, died in 2015 following treatment for an aggressive brain tumour. Sarah Pugh, 26, has signed up to take on Velo Birmingham, a 100-mile, closed-road bike ride coming to the second city for the first time in September 2017. Cycling a ‘century’ will be no mean feat, but Sarah is adding an extra dimension to her challenge – she’s aiming to raise as many donations as she can for QEHB Charity, to say thank you to doctors for their care of her friend.
Sarah said: “My relationship with the hospital is very bittersweet. I spent a lot of time visiting a close friend in the summer of 2014 when she was being treated for a cancerous brain tumour, before she passed away in 2015 at the age of 25.
“I knew Maxwell originally from work, but we grew close after a wicked and memorable long weekend to Barcelona with a couple of other friends. After that our friendship continued like any normal friendship, sharing stupid videos we found on the internet and pretty much chatting rubbish all day long.
“It was only a few months after Barcelona that Maxwell was rushed to the hospital after a severe migraine, and later was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour.”
This was devastating news for Leanne and her friends and family. Looking back on that period of their lives, Sarah said: “I think the human mind is programmed to override any sort of worry or fear in a time of real need, and looking back now the whole thing seems surreal.
“All of Leanne’s friends, family, our mutual friend Sarah, and I all regularly visited Leanne, who had to stay in hospital throughout the summer following her surgery.
“Unless it’s to celebrate the birth of a new child, hospitals aren’t always associated with happy times, however I commend all the nurses, doctors, surgeons, and staff at the Queen Elizabeth who put the patient first and don’t always get the thanks they deserve.
“The QEHB is, in my opinion, an excellent hospital, the facilities are state of the art and everything is so clean. It’s for that reason that I have decided to raise money for QEHB Charity; to give something back, not only to say thank you for doing all that was possible for Maxwell, but also to help future patients and their family and friends, and hopefully make their visit to the Queen Elizabeth that little bit better.”
Sarah is one of roughly 1,000 altruistic athletes taking on the Velo Birmingham for QEHB Charity, and helping to bring life-changing equipment, research and facilities to patients at Birmingham’s biggest hospital.
Mike Hammond, Chief Executive of QEHB Charity, said: “It is only thanks to hard-working, dedicated and compassionate fundraisers like Sarah that we are able to go on supporting the fantastic care provided by staff at QEHB, including the neurology and neurosurgery departments. I’m looking forward to cycling alongside Sarah and the rest of our team!”
