This year's annual Foster Clark's Life Cycle challenge is returning to the African continent where the riders will undergo a 10-day challenge from Nairobi (Kenya) to Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), a distance of around 1,900km. This will be the Foundation's 19th year of raising money for persons suffering from renal failure and as always the trip is going to be a huge test of stamina for the 16 cyclists taking part.

"Africa is the ultimate challenge and takes us all out of our comfort zones," says founder Alan Curry. "Last year, Zambia was an incredible experience and to be going back to Africa was inevitable although the terrain this time round will be even more testing," continued Alan. Cycling around Mount Kilimanjaro and through the beautiful Maasai Steppes will be hard enough but with deviations in temperature of almost freezing at nights and 35-40 degrees during the day another tough challenge awaits. The cyclists will be taken care of by a team of Kenyans and the majority of the overnight accommodations will be camping with basic comforts.

"It's not easy spending 10-12 hours on the bike then having to camp out in the bush but the aim has always been to show that we want people to see that we are willing to push ourselves in order to raise awareness," said Alan.

This year the money raised will go towards an information system relating to the recipients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. This system will be instrumental in determining the best recipient for a particular donor kidney. The foundation is also planning to fund extended psychological support to deceased donors' respective relatives, in conjunction with a drive by the renal unit to extend psychological services for transplant recipients and living donors.

Our commitment to research remains strong as we believe that in the fight against renal failure, knowledge is power.

Training is well underway and cyclists are getting mentally and physically prepared, all the while raising funds and awareness. We hope to have your support and are determined to keep raising funds and awareness to help the patients of the renal unit. The sufferers of this devastating condition have their lives turned upside down and they deserve all our support.