The Fireflies Ride

six Years Of Fireflies
Six years ago, the Fireflies first climbed aboard their bicycles and rode for Leuka, a charity established to support a research and treatment unit for leukaemia led by Professor Goldman at Hammersmith Hospital.

Since its inception the Fireflies ride has raised £240,000 towards the Leuka appeal by completing an epic 8 day 1000km bike ride in the French Alps from Geneva to Cannes. The route follows many of the same epic alpine accents as the Tour de France and is recognised as one of the most arduous cycling journeys in the world. Last year included, for the first time, the famous L"Alp D"Huez climb.

Bearing in mind that the mountains the Fireflies will be traversing have come to embody the ultimate toughness and harshness of the Tour de France, they have adopted the motto "For those who suffer we ride".

Why the name?
Initiated in 2000, the Fireflies gained their name during the first year, after a procession of glowing fireflies led the riders down a steep mountain in the pitch black. This same night-time ride will be completed again this year.

This event has been supported strongly by RSA Films from the beginning as part of the sponsorship package.

How much have we raised?
In the last 4 years we have raised up to £240k for Leuka. The money raised through Leuka 2000 so far has contributed towards salaries for 11 Leukaemia scientists and laboratory workers and in the last two years has enabled purchase of the following equipment:

Continuous flow blood cell separator: Used to collect leukaemia cells and normal stem cells from circulating blood of patients with leukaemia and from donors for transplantation.

Fluorescence activated cell sorter: Measures the numbers of cells with a wide variety of different proteins on their surface, some patterns being unique to leukaemia cells.

Cell counter for the Catherine Lewis Centre: A standard apparatus that counts white cells and platelets (colourless sticky bodies present in blood which along with other substances form blood clots) in the blood of patients undergoing treatment.

10 Isolation hoods : special booths needed to prevent the contamination of cells in a lab environment.

The Fireflies' arrival into Cannes has generated great support from the advertising industry and culminates with a hero's welcome at the Palais des Festivals.

Your donations are important to us. There are different ways to make one. You can either fill out a form and send it out with a cheque, or you can make a donation to Leuka online.

Read more first
Download the donators form
Make an online donation

This year we are hoping to raise a minimum of £100,000 and whilst we recognise individual donations as given above integral to this cause, we also consider corporate sponsorships as key to achieving this goal. Unprecedented interest in the Fireflies offers sponsors an exciting platform for promotions and branding.

See who is currently sponsoring us and find out how you can become a sponsor.

Read messages written by the riders, about the latest news and what has happened so far. Also catch daily footage as the ride takes place. Watch this space from the 12th of June. Send an email to us and sign up for news updates.

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