A team of 58 Maltese cyclists will be leaving tomorrow to cycle 2,018 kilometres over 10 days, crossing the Arctic Circle, in their bid to raise awareness about the renal unit and organ donations.

How it all started

LifeCycle is the brainchild of personal fitness instructor Alan Curry, whose wife Carmen had to receive haemodialysis at St Luke's Hospital's renal unit in 1998.

As a gesture to the unit's staff, Mr Curry thought of cycling from Malta across Europe to his place of birth in Haydon Bridge, near Newcastle, in 21 days.

He was joined by another three cyclists including the unit's nursing officer Tony Bugeja and, after five months of intensive training, they left Malta on August 29, 1999.

The organisation has since grown and a challenge has been held annually.

Over the years, LifeCycle donations to the unit included 12 kidney machines, 29 automated peritoneal dialysis machines, an air-conditioning system, a financial donation towards the procurement of a haemodialysis reverse osmosis plant, a dialysis couch, the refurbishment and extension of the unit, an ultrasound machine, a portable site rite vascular ultrasound machine and a motorised movement therapy system.

Donations to Travelex LifeCycle can be made online at www.lifecyclechallenge.com, by SMS on 5061 7356 for a Lm1 donation, 5061 8921 for a Lm3 donation and 5061 9208 for a Lm5 donation, by cheque to LifeCycle Organisation, c/o Renal Unit, St Luke's Hospital, Guardamangia, or by making a deposit in HSBC (Malta) account 061198792050 or Bank of Valletta account 1481421017.

This year's challenge

The challenge this year - Over And Above: Crossing The Arctic Circle - will see a team of 58 cyclists, accompanied by a backup of 26, cycling 2,018 kilometres over 10 days from Honefoss, in Norway, to Rovaniemi, in Finland.

A total of 29 cyclists will be doing the challenge for the first time. Out of the 58, 16 are female. The youngest cyclist is 18, the oldest 52.

The cyclists leave Malta tomorrow, to arrive in Norway on Monday and embark on their challenge on Tuesday.

They have been training for 15 weeks, starting with nine hours or 180 kilometres going up to 29 hours or 600 kilometres a week.

In Scandinavia, their longest ride is on day five when they have to cycle 270 kilometres from Grong to Korgen, both in Norway. Their shortest day is the last day when they will cycle the final lap of 100 kilometres taking them from Pello, in Finland, to Rovaniemi.

A case study of a renal patient

Dolly looks like someone who enjoys life and takes good care of herself. People who do not know her would never guess she has been receiving dialysis for the past three years.

Now 59, she had known she would eventually have to be on a kidney machine since she was 32. Then, her kidneys had started to shrivel as a result of an infection she must have had for a long time.

A stone had been partially blocking the passing of urine and when she had this removed by open surgery in Italy, she was warned that, eventually, she would have to have more stones removed and would end up on dialysis.

By the time she started dialysis, she had had nine interventions to break stones. She also had kidney infections in between.

Although she had been told not to eat certain foods, being a person who lives for the day, it was not the first time she cheated.

While on a Mediterranean cruise three years ago, her legs swelled like never before but she refused to let that ruin her holiday and insisted on having a good time even though she needed shoes that were two sizes bigger than her usual size.

She had tests on her arrival in Malta and her doctor told her he was taking her on her next cruise - to the renal unit.

Dolly's kidneys were failing and she had to be put on dialysis.

For two years she was put on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, a home machine she had to connect to for 11 hours a day to clean and filter out her system.

She had to follow a particular diet and cheating was now out of the question, since if she cheated, she would swell.

For a year and nine months, she was trouble free, but three months of hell then followed. She had a life threatening infection and had to be hospitalised for 11 days.

The catheter inside her started leaking and it had to be taken off so she was again operated upon.

Since then she had to be put on haemodialysis. Instead of the daily 11-hour session at home, this involves a four-and-a-half hour session three times a week at the renal unit in St Luke's Hospital.

"It is a very traumatic experience, especially at the beginning. There are 12 to 15 beds with a machine on the side of each bed and each patient will have different problems.

"There are patients who are blind, others without limbs. I come out of hospital so sad for the patients who are much worse than me.

But for the two days following her treatment, Dolly manages to switch off and live life to the full doing the things she likes. This does not mean that when not on a machine life is easy. "There are side effects and sometimes I get very bad headaches which can last up to the next morning.

"Moreover, I have to go for dialysis even if I'm sick. When I had a broken leg, they used to come for me by ambulance.

Dolly said:

"Coping with dialysis is not always easy. You must see the people around you who are worse off and not feel sorry for yourself.

"My father taught me this on his death bed. His favourite saying was 'I was sorry I had no shoes till I saw the man who had no feet.'''

Dolly said she would not have managed to cope so well without the constant support of her husband, her two daughters, her sisters, her mother, her brothers, the rest of her family and her close friends.

Support is also forthcoming from LifeCycle and she has got to know the cyclists and other members of the team personally.

Dolly had a special note of thanks for all the staff at the renal unit, including her consultant Manuel Farrugia and nursing officer Tony Bugeja. She also thanked her surgeon Alex Attard.

Behind the scenes

A challenge like LifeCycle is impossible without the work of a good back-up team during the actual challenge and throughout the year.

Fr Bernard Mangion OFM Cap., 66, has been supporting LifeCycle since the first challenge eight years ago blessing the participating cyclists before they leave Malta each year. For the first time this year, he will be forming part of the back-up team during the challenge.

As one of the chaplains at St Luke's Hospital, he said he could see and feel the suffering of the people going through renal failure and who had to sit at dialysis machines for four hours at a time, sometimes more than twice a week.

LifeCycle was buying more machines for the unit enabling patients a shorter gap between one session and another, improving their qualify of life.

He said the enthusiasm shown by the participants, who came from all walks of life and professions as well as from different age groups, was admirable.

And although he had always wished to join the LifeCycle team during their challenge, he had been too embarrassed to ask. So when Mr Curry asked him to join the challenge this year, he grabbed the opportunity.

His job will be principally to offer spiritual support but he will also be the driver of one of the luggage vans. "I am willing to do whatever needs to be done," he said.

Pharmacist Anna Miggiani, 52, is a founder member and the chairman of LifeCycle and has never missed a challenge. This will be her eighth.

She recalls the first challenge, which had been taken up by four cyclists, and has seen the charity grow from its very humble beginnings.

Her job this year will be to cook. It will be her second time as a cook but the number of people she and her team will have to cater for this year is three times as large.

"Our challenge will be to come up with different and interesting meals providing the cyclists with the right nutrition for the energy they need but using a limited amount of ingredients.

"Mostly we will be cooking pasta with different sauces. We will have to boil 20 kilos of pasta each time."

Cyclists, who would be famished at the end of their daily challenge, will also be given soup and an energy drink while waiting for their pasta to be cooked.

The cooking team is made up of eight people, six will be working in the kitchen, two distributing the food on the road.

The cooking staff will be the first to wake up at 5.30 a.m. daily. They will then wake the rest of the back-up team up, cook breakfast and finally get the cyclists out of "bed".

They are the last to leave the place they would be staying at and the first to arrive at the next destination. En route, they stop only to buy bread and fruit.

Why are they doing it?

Nadine Grech, 24, teacher, (first time): This is my contribution to voluntary work this year.

Chris Mangion, 30, police officer, (first time): I'm an outdoor person, I race cars and bikes, I teach abseiling, and this is the cherry on the cake. It is a good challenge for a good cause.

Ray Abela, 52, works at Trelleborg, (fourth time): I am doing it to help LifeCycle achieve all their aims - furnish the renal unit and encourage transplants.

Mervyn Borg, 26, works in IT, (first time): I'm doing it as a personal challenge and as my bit for charity.

Tatyana Mintoff, 25, doctor, (first time): I am doing it mostly as a personal challenge but also because I know what renal failure is so I know that the challenge is for a good cause.

What is kidney failure?

Renal failure is when kidneys do not function properly. Among other things, the kidneys serve to get rid of the waste products that result from the body's metabolism.

Renal failure can be either acute or chronic.

Acute renal failure can occur with any serious illness or operation, particularly those complicated by severe infection.

The kidneys may be damaged if the blood supply to the kidneys is reduced considerably from blood loss, a fall in blood pressure, severe dehydration or lack of salt.

Chronic renal failure may be caused by inflammatory conditions affecting the kidney tissue, as a complication of long-standing sugar diabetes, chronic blockage to the drainage of the kidneys and as a result of certain inherited conditions.

The renal unit at St Luke's Hospital has an average of 180 patients on haemo (110) or peritoneal (70) dialysis. They are aged between six and 80.