The Crohn’s Crusaders

Thanks very much for following the Crohn’s Crusaders Tour de France cycling project.

We have had a few bugs in our system and not everybody has been receiving notification of our e-mail updates so I thought I would send you an e-mail to let you know how we are going.

We have posted updates, including photos, for the first 6 stages at www.thecrusaders.com.au and will save the remainder of the updates to coincide with each stage of the real Tour de France so that we can compare our efforts to the professionals and you can read about our experiences as you watch each stage on TV.

Currently, we have completed 20 of 21 stages and are due to ride into Paris to complete the course tomorrow. We are extremely proud (and maybe a little surprised) to have made it this far as it has been the most physically and mentally demanding pursuit we have ever applied ourselves to and it has been far harder and more draining than any of us ever anticipated.

The whole reason we are putting ourselves through this is to raise funds and awareness for Crohn’s Disease. Crohn’s is a chronic digestive system disease which is extremely debilitating. There is no cure and the cause is unknown. We aim to raise $100,000 to contribute directly towards research for a cure.

Thanks to everybody who has donated to date. Our donation tally is just over $20,000. We have over $6,000 donated online and the remainder in cheques directly to CCA (Crohn’s & Colitis Australia).

For those of you who are yet to donate and wish to do so now is the time to dig deep and help us reach our fundraising goals. You can donate at the following link:

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/crohnscrusaders

I’ve just contributed $1,000 towards the cause to get you started and I hope as many of you can contribute as possible.

Thanks very much and we look forward to sharing the remainder of our updates with you throughout the course of the 2009 Tour de France.

Regards

Damian Watson and the Crohn’s Crusaders Team