Posties Ride For Mito Cause

Have you ever seen a cavalcade of posties cruising the highway? You will soon.

The Mito Postie Adventure is going to be an eye-opener, at least that is what Matt Holroyd’s family hopes.

Matt was a normal youngster, playing rep soccer with his peers when he was 12 or 13.

By the time he turned 16, he had started to have gastro problems, having to be hospitalised when he caught a gastro bug when the rest of the family recovered swiftly.

He was diagnosed with mitochondrial disease when he was 19.

His mum, Lisa said that the complexities of the disease resulted in a feeling alone.

“You become isolated,” she said.

“Yes, your friends were all in the background but they couldn’t do anything.

“For the last eight months or so, I didn’t leave the house.

“There’s nothing you can do.

“I was so positive for a long time.

“I never thought we’d get here.

“He defied so many things.”

It was a throwaway comment made during a conversation between her husband and son-in-law - “We’ll do a postie run one day,” that birthed the postie adventure that will take off from Londonderry on April 8.

“We didn’t think that ‘one day’ would come,” Lisa said.

“Now we’re here.

“We have 25 riders, mostly friends of friends.

“There are 55 of us all-up going as part of our backup crew.

“The ride’s become a big adventure.

“They’ve been doing some practice rides, but they’re just a couple of hours.

“They have to travel 350km on the first day.

“The idea for going so far on the bike is to get the boys to push themselves mentally and physically to feel muscular aches and pains like a Mito person suffers daily.”

IMAGE: The Mito Postie Adventure will start on April 8, when Matt Holroyd’s family and friends set off on a long journey on posties.

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• Health & Wellness