The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Moulton Chapel cyclist has said “it felt like fate” when he discovered a charity cycling challenge fell on the anniversary of his sister’s death.
Simon Williams is gearing up to tackle this year’s Ride London 100 bike ride in aid of Asthma UK – on exactly the same day as his sister died as the result of an asthma attack 15 years ago.
Simon (42) said: “The date of the event came as a complete surprise.
“It was only when the email from Asthma UK came through confirming my place that I looked at the date and it hit me that it was my sister’s 15th anniversary.
“It felt like fate, like I should be taking part for her.”
Simon’s sister Suzanne was just 28 when she died of an asthma attack.
Having been diagnosed with the condition aged seven, Suzanne’s asthma worsened as she approached her teens and early 20s.
Though Suzanne had suffered several attacks a year, her family were shocked to realise that asthma had been the cause of her death.
Simon says: “We never imagined asthma would kill her.
“I was at work when a lady from HR came into my office and said ‘I’ve had a phone call with terrible news, your sister has died’.
“I called my parents immediately to find out what happened, assuming she must have been in a car accident or something.”
Simon credits Asthma UK with giving him and his family the confidence to demand sufficient support for his eight-year-old daughter Niamh who has severe asthma – support he believes his late sister was badly deprived of.
He says: “In the years before Suzanne died she started to really struggle getting doctors to take her seriously.
“They would say, ‘We’ve given you inhalers – that should solve it’. She kept saying her medication wasn’t working but they didn’t appear to listen.
“Thanks to Asthma UK’s website and the asthma nurse we spoke to on the Asthma UK helpline, we now have the confidence to go to doctors when we are worried about Niamh and say, ‘we need you to do something’.
“Without that information and support we wouldn’t have the confidence to challenge them. I just wish Suzanne had had that when she was struggling.”
The Ride London 100 takes place on Sunday.
It starts in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, then follows a 100-mile route on closed roads through the capital and into Surrey’s stunning countryside before finishing on The Mall in central London.
