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When Charity Goes The Extra Mile: MassiveMusic and The FireFlies Cycle to Cannes

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International music agency MassiveMusic is going the extra mile for a very good cause. This month, Massivians Helen Bellringer, Paul Reynolds, and Massive’s publisher Steven Joyce will embark on an epic ride. They will cycle together with The FireFlies to help raise money for Bloodwise, a UK charity dedicated to funding research into all blood cancers. It’s a cause that MassiveMusic strongly supports, as something that has occurred to one of its team members, with his family enduring not one, but two cases of leukaemia over the last few years.

Cycling over the French Alps from Lake Geneva to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, The FireFlies’ challenge is to ride more than 1000km over 18 mountains for eight long and fearsome days.

Inspired by the courage it takes to fight cancer, the ride is a celebration of life, love, and friendship. Just as cancer sufferers don’t know what each day will bring, The FireFlies don’t know the route until the day before they ride each stage. The big arrival is expected on June 21st, when a swarm of riders will proudly pull into the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

“Last year, I was riding for close friends who were going through round after round of gruelling treatment for leukaemia. Fortunately, they all got through, but the illness is far from beaten, so I’m riding again this year,” Sounds Like Publishing’s Managing Director, Steven Joyce, comments.

Helen Bellringer, ‎Creative Producer at MassiveMusic London, adds: “Little did I know that in the space of six months, I would turn from a casual commuter cyclist to a lycra-clad maniac. Hours have been spent on Google comparing the reviews of different bum creams and weekends offered up as sacrifice to the gods of the long-distance training ride.”

The FireFlies’ name stems from the inaugural year when, late one night, the original crew descended Col du Turini in pitch-black conditions. With no moonlight to guide them through the forest, it was thousands of fireflies that lit the crew’s path down the mountain and led them to safety.

There will be bicycles, of course, but also tears, laughter, mountains, ice creams, reggae music, and colossal amounts of joy.

Paul Reynolds, Managing Director at MassiveMusic London, concludes: “I was lucky enough to meet somebody at London’s Hammersmith Hospital who’d been treated on the incredibly expensive, not readily available machines that we’d funded. They were basically alive because of the FireFlies, and that’s the same for a number of people we’ve met through the years. To be able to give someone with cancer just one pain-free day is reward enough, but the tour has genuinely saved lives.”

To date, The FireFlies Tour has raised over £1.7 million for those who are affected by the condition. Please support this cause: together we can help beat blood cancer.

All proceeds go to Bloodwise via the related JustGiving Pages:

Paul Reynolds | Helen Bellringer | Steven Joyce

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