Jacinta Gray my beautiful wife and devoted mum.

On the 8th of March I am doing a 300km cycle ride on country roads, taking the long route from Auckland to Tauranga in one day to raise money for the Waipuna Hospice.

On the 27th of June last year my wife Jacinta Gray aged 42 passed away from bowel cancer. Prior to her passing away she spent the last 5 weeks of her life at the Waipuna Hospice. She felt safe there and the staff nurses and doctors were amazing through those last tough days of her life.

I have often thought of how I could raise some money and give a little back to this wonderful organisation. So I have decided to do a cycle ride with the proceeds going to the Waipuna Hospice.

Jacinta was an exceptional cyclist who represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth and Olympic games in the road race. She rode professionally for German, French and American teams and during this time rode all the big stage races and one day classics for woman of the time. She was extremely humble about her time as an athlete and did not talk about it much as like all over achievers was working on her next project in life, in which she gave 110%. We occasionally would be watching a big race from Europe and she would out of no where describe how hard the Mur de Huy or Poggio climbs were or how beautiful the countryside in a particular part of France was to ride in.

A talented climber she was a real threat when the finish was up hill. But unfortunately for her and luckily for her competitors she lacked some bike handling skills and struggled on descents which ultimately cost her a lot of race wins. The route for the ride will start from where she was born in West Auckland go through the countryside of Waikato where she began to race and train and finish at the Waipuna Hospice.

At 300km the route is not exceptionally long by cycling standards, but for my level of fitness it will be extremely challenging especially the last 100km and I will complete this in one day.

I hope anyone who reads this will give a little to Waipuna Hospice as they need every bit they can get to continue to provide this level of amazing support and care. We as a family have learned you never know who will need help in the future, young or old.

Jacinta was immensely brave and fought the good fight through the different phases of her illness, operations, chemotherapy and ultimately her passing.

Jacinta leaves behind 3 beautiful children Max, Scarlett and Rory who they like myself miss their mum beyond words.

https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/health/body/olympic-star-jacinta-gray-opens-up-about-her-terminal-cancer-diagnosis-33014