After a bike ride of more than two thousand kilometers, Hoofddorper Tim Schroeder and friend Richard Hubert arrived in Alicante yesterday. Three weeks ago, the men set out for the Spanish city to raise money for research into Usher syndrome, the disease from which Tim’s daughter Eleyna (5) suffers.
“My daughter has the syndrome [van Usher, red] as a result of which she will slowly become deaf and blind”, Tim said three weeks ago just before departure for the NH Nieuws camera. The disease is progressive and untreatable, but Tim hopes that treatment will be possible in a few years’ time. “And that hope is realistic,” he told NH Nieuws by phone today from Alicante.
Because the men had no scout at their disposal during the first days of their journey, they had to look for places to sleep themselves. As a result, they did not cover the intended 2,200 kilometers, but more than 100 kilometers more.
It was hard work for various reasons, says Tim. “We’ve pretty much experienced all the weather. We left with the sun, it started to hail in Belgium, we got burned in France and the last days in Spain we had nice weather again.”
“The pain was sometimes so overwhelming that it was difficult to enjoy it”
Tim and Richard had anticipated that it would be ‘physically challenging’. “We were in good shape, but the saddle pain was really terrible. I had bought good cycling shorts, but the pain was sometimes so overwhelming that it was difficult to enjoy them.”
His already weak knees also started playing tricks on him, mainly due to a navigation app that steered them along heavy gravel and gravel paths. “In France the road surface was good, but in Spain it was dramatic. I bought a brace, but you are constantly shaking on your bike. That is not good for your joints.”
Collection
The bike ride has been good for the search for a medicine against Usher syndrome, the rare disease that Tim’s daughter Eleyna suffers from. “She will become night blind around the age of 12”, explains Tim why it is so important that a treatment method is found quickly.
“For such an amount, there had to be a performance in return”
For a long time it seemed that Tim and Richard would just not reach the target amount of 25,000 euros. “But last night my employer supplemented the amount to 25,000 euros,” says Tim lyrically. “For such an amount there had to be an achievement, but I am happy that it worked.”
Festive welcome
Tim and Richard were festively welcomed in Alicante by Tim’s family, including daughter Eleyna. “She knows I’ve been cycling for her ears, but she doesn’t know she has Usher syndrome yet. We’ll tell her around eight when she’s more aware of it.”
View below the report we made last month, on the day of departure.
Cycling for daughter with Usher – NH Nieuws