PREPARATIONS are under way for a Farnham couple as they gear up for this year’s Dragon Tour and London Revolution cycling challenges, in aid of the intensive care neurological unit at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

The Dragon Tour is a three-day cycling challenge covering more than 350 miles around the Gower Peninsula and the Brecon Beacons in South Wales – while the London Revolution covers 185 miles in two days, taking in breathtaking sights like Tower Bridge and the River Thames.

Taking the plunge are Bernie and Duncan Hards, who want to show their appreciation to the staff at St George’s Hospital, who helped save Bernie’s life five years ago.

In 2012 Bernie was diagnosed with a large brain aneurysm and was transferred to St George’s Hospital and put under the care of the neuroradiology team

After some time in the intensive care unit she was sent home, only to later return due to the growth of the aneurysm.

The new year came and an angiogram showed that it had extended again and become a dangerous dissecting aneurysm. During this surgery it ruptured, and Bernie incurred a brain haemorrhage and haemorrhagic stroke and was rushed to neurosurgery where they opened her head for a drain to be installed.

This left Bernie with a left hemiplegia (impaired left arm and leg), left hemianopia (loss of vision on left side) and poor sensation through her left side.

After months of rehab Bernie was discharged. In 2016 the couple found a semi-recumbent tandem and headed out not long after upping their mileage every time.

Duncan said: “She has had a real hard battle the last two years, she was a former elite level cyclist. Seeing her back on the bike was amazing, the first thing she said was she can smell the fields.

“It is nice to have her out and doing something that she enjoyed doing. She was a competitive cyclist, she raced with people like Danny Kane, Sarah Storey and Laura Trott.

“She was really good naturally and that got taken away from her. At the time we weren’t as worried about the sport side of things, it was more of the fact she was here, she shouldn’t be here. We lost her twice, she was in intensive care for two-and-a-half weeks.

“For the family it was more important she survived than anything else, the sports side of it she can just leave, as she is just happy to be here. It’s more important for her to try and raise awareness of a condition that normally kills people – it’s called a silent killer for a reason because you don’t know you’ve got it.”

The duo are attempting to raise £5,000 for the staff at St George’s to advance their knowledge and to go on training courses.

“The staff at Tooting were absolutely phenomenal, I wouldn’t have gotten through the three to four months that she was in hospital without their help. Bernie just soldiers on, she is a real trooper,” concluded Duncan.

People can support the pair by visiting their Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Bernie-and-dunc-tandem-challenge.