Mike Tindall looked
exhausted in his latest Instagram post, telling followers “a little part
of me died inside” as he took part in a sporty challenge for charity.
Mike told followers that he
had been biking for five hours that morning, and was disappointed that he
didn’t get to stop for food, but he was still optimistic about the climb,
telling viewers he was going to “let the good times roll”.
The husband of the Queen’s
granddaughter, Zara Tindall, has embarked on a 770 km-long bike
ride from Lake Geneva to Antibes to raise money for the charity Cure
Parkinson’s.
He is a member of a team
of 22 riders, five of whom have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
The challenge, which is called
Raid Alpine, lasts six days, and will see the former professional rugby player
do a whopping vertical ascent of 18,000m: over two times the height
of Mount Everest!
Mike wasn’t letting the
strenuous work get him down in his latest Instagram post, however.
He celebrated after managing
to climb the highest road in the Alps, Col d’Iseran, reaching the peak
after a 48km ride.
But Mike wasn’t feeling so
jolly after day two of the challenge when he had to climb the Col de Prez,
which he described as a “horrible, horrible hill”.
Mike’s father was
diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2003, and since then the retired rugby
star has worked to help the charity Cure Parkinson’s to fund research of the
disease.
He became a patron of the
charity in 2018 and, in the past, he has hosted several fundraising events
for the charity, including a Celebrity Golf Classic.
In a video shared by Cure
Parkinson’s, Mike opened up about why his work with the charity was so
important to him.
“My dad has had
Parkinson’s for 20 years,” he began. “You know, it’s been a tough
road for him, especially in the last ten years and it’s been great to put that
funding into research.
“So everything that Cure
Parkinson’s does is purely about research. Their sole goal is to not exist. To
stop, reverse and cure Parkinson’s ultimately, it’s something that because of
having to watch my dad go through it, that’s something I’m more interested in,
the cure side of it than just living with it.”
