'Immense frustration' - Boston woman who took on epic charity cycle ride in memory of son forced to abandon effort after suffering mini-stroke en route

Magdalena (Maggie) Cullen, 49, has spoken of her ‘immense frustration’ at having to cut short the epic charity effort.

Maggie – a newly elected member of Lincolnshire County Council – set out from Ratiskovice, the village in the Czech Republic where she grew up, on Wednesday, June 4.

Across 21 days, she planned to cycle back to the UK to raise funds for Brain Tumour Research in tribute to her late son Joshua Patrick Cullen.

Joshua died in October of last year, aged just 27, almost four years after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma – an aggressive and incurable form of brain tumour.

Speaking ahead of the ride, Maggie said: “Joshua never complained, not once in almost four years of treatment. I used to ask him, ‘Aren’t you angry? Don’t you feel this is unfair?’ But he always said, ‘What’s the point? It won’t help anything.’ He faced every scan, every hospital visit, every round of chemo with bravery and calm. He loved life, and he lived it right up to the end. I’ve never been more proud of anyone. I don’t think I could’ve done what he did.”

However, about five days into the challenge, she started experiencing numbness down the right side of her body.

“I thought it was just one of those things,” she said, not letting it put her off her ambition.

The numbness, however, became such an issue that, at times, Maggie had to stop cycling and continue on foot instead.

“I felt so weak I just had to stop and walk for a while,” she said.

At the end of day eight, Maggie took herself to hospital, deciding there was ‘obviously something wrong’.

She would go on to be told it appeared she had suffered a mini-stroke – a temporary disruption in the blood supply to part of the brain, which can cause sudden symptoms similar to a stroke.

Understandably, this marked the end of Maggie’s charity effort. She had covered about 500 miles, reaching Germany.

Since returning to the UK, Maggie has received confirmation she suffered a mini-stroke and has been referred to a neurologist.

Speaking to The Standard this week, she said she felt ‘absolutely gutted’ to have not covered the total distance, but also that she had let others down.

“I have some money saved that I'm going to put towards it to pretty much say ‘sorry’ for finishing early and not completing what I set out to do,” she said.

Friends, she said, have been ‘very understanding’, telling her she has ‘nothing to apologise for’, ‘nothing to be sorry about’, that ‘she did her best and her body let her down’.

However, a sense of falling short, remains in her.

“I’m a stubborn mule,” she said. “I set out to do something and I did not do it.”

This was, in fact, the second time Maggie had attempted the journey; in 2023, it was brought to an abrupt end just outside Dunkirk after a crash left her injured and unable to continue.

The route holds personal meaning for Maggie as she originally dreamed of cycling to England from the Czech Republic as a teenager, but the plan was stopped by her grandmother.

Despite Maggie’s ride coming to an early finish, the fundraising total still stands at £1,260.

In addition to honouring Joshua’s memory and raising funds, the ride aimed to raise awareness of the need for greater investment in brain tumour research. Only one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002, Brain Tumour Research says.

Speaking ahead of the ride, Maggie said: “It’s shocking that research in brain tumours remains so underfunded when you look at the stats of how deaths from the disease compare to other cancers. That’s not anger speaking, but disbelief.

“I mention Joshua and what he went through to so many people and they almost always say, ‘I know someone who had a brain tumour.’ That says everything. It’s everywhere, and yet it doesn’t get the attention it needs. Every cancer deserves care and funding, but brain cancer is a life sentence and steals the futures of thousands of people. I want to help change that, however I can.”

To donate, visit:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/just-pedalling-4-cancer-take2