"It was devastating": Derbyshire cyclist begins 240-mile charity ride in memory of dear friend and dad-of-two

Alistair Puddick, a business manager at Clay Cross firm IKO Road, is leading a team of six cyclists who saddled up in Wirksworth on Thursday, May 23, waved off by the family of Rod Slater, who Alistair had been best friends with since their early days at Anthony Gell School.

The peloton is expected to arrive in Dumfries on Saturday, where Rod’s wife Lesley still lives with the couple’s sons, Jonah and Asher, aged nine and six.

Rod’s mum Alison, who lives on Yokecliffe Hill in Wirksworth, said: “We’re really grateful to Alistair, and proud that he thought so much of Rod to do something like this.

“Through Rod’s illness, Alistair was always there for him, and he just decided he wanted to do something to raise awareness and money.

“It was a shock to all of us when Rod was diagnosed at such a young age. None of us realised it could happen until it did.”

The first concrete signs of Rod’s illness developed when he was 39, just a month after Jonah was born.

Alison said: “In hindsight, we think it started about ten years previously when he had some stomach problems. He had a lot of tests and they thought it was Celiac disease at first, but all that seemed to settle down.

“He’d moved up to Scotland, threw himself into a new job, got married, had a little boy, then he woke up one morning and he’d lost his voice, with no other symptoms of a cold or anything.

“While he was waiting for an appointment with a consultant he noticed a tremor in his hands, and within three months of Jonah’s birth he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”

She added: “They said at the time that although it’s life-limiting, most people can just get on with their lives. Rod seemed to get the worst of all the symptoms.”

Rod came from a keen cycling family. Brother Gavin was a mechanic to Team GB Triathletes and now works at Zepnat Cycles in Matlock.

Together with dad Dennis they had travelled around with the Tour de France in several years, and themselves completed the famous Marmotte ride in the Alps.

But as his condition progressed, Rod became less and less mobile.

Alison said: “He started having a lot of falls, including one down the stairs which really injured his back.

“He was a service engineer with Bellhaven Brewery and they’d been really good at making adaptations to make life easier. Then the pandemic came, he was furloughed, and that inability to do anything meant it all went downhill very quickly.”

Up to that point, Parkinson’s UK had been another lifeline to Rod and his family via a local support group, which connected them with others going through similar experiences.

Alison said: “There were not many of Rod’s age group, but he still benefitted from chatting to people in the same position, sharing tips, and the kids got to go along too and meet other people who knew what they were going through.”

His best friend also proved a hugely important source of support, says Alison: “Rod struggled with depression in the last couple of years, and Alistair was the one he would phone and chat to.

“Alistair would always make time to go up and see him, or visit here when Rod was staying with us.”

By March last year, Rod’s health had deteriorated to the extent that he had moved into sheltered accommodation but his death on May 15, 2023, still came out of the blue.

Alison said: “They day before his wife and kids had been to visit, they’d been working on the garden and putting out patio furniture. They left him in the evening and he was fine.

“The next morning, he rang for his carers and then just collapsed from a pulmonary embolism.”

She added: “It left the whole family distraught. It was devastating for his children. We try and be positive, remember the good times and get on with things but it’s difficult.

"Rod was a loving, caring, son, brother, husband, father, uncle and friend to many and never lost his sense of humour despite the many challenges his Parkinson’s dealt him.”

The challenge for Alistair and his team began with a ride to the New York Stadium in Rod’s birthplace, Rotherham, and home to the football club he supported throughout his life.

From there, the route will take to Bolton, then Chorley in Lancashire – where Rod lived for a time in early adulthood – and then on to Ambleside in the Lake District and the Scottish border.

So far, they have raised more than £3,000, more than treble their original target.

Alistair said: “I have seen first hand how much this crippling disease takes away and just want to support the great work that Parkinson's UK do and also go some way to help fund research into a cure and supporting current and future sufferers of Parkinson's.

“I know Rod would have loved to do this ride so it is the perfect activity to do in his memory and I hope we can do it justice and raise plenty for a vitally important charity.”

For more details and donations, go to justgiving.com/page/ride4rod2024. To learn more about the charity and its work, go to parkinsons.org.uk.