Betfair LifeCycle Challenge

LifeCycle is run by a team of dedicated volunteers.

Alan Curry – Chairperson

Alan is a personal fitness consultant and British Cycling coach who was the founder member of the LifeCycle idea.

Alan’s wife Carmen is a kidney patient having been on dialysis for 3 years before undergoing a kidney transplant 10 years ago. Alan’s original idea was to cycle from Malta to his home village near Newcastle in the UK as a gesture of thanks to the renal unit for their treatment of Carmen during those early days of dialysis. The trip took 19 days and totalled 3100km raising thousands for the unit and gaining unprecedented publicity for renal patients.

The organisation was born and since then Alan has ridden two more challenges, however he has predominantly been the event organiser for the past 12 years, with special responsibility for training the cyclists.

Shirley Cefai – Secretary

Shirley graduated as an architect and civil engineer in 1988 and has worked in the field of conservation ever since. She currently lectures in the field of conservation to students in the Faculty for the Built Environment within the University of Malta, and students following the BCons course in Bighi.

Shirley decided to participate as a cyclist in the 2008 LifeCycle Challenge because it gave her the opportunity to help renal patients through her love of sport and physical training. In 2009 she was asked to join the committee as media officer, including the role of liaison between LifeCycle and the title sponsor, Betfair. She now has the role of secretary on the LifeCycle board.

In addition to her activities for LifeCycle, Shirley is also a member of the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Megalithic Temples.

Jenny Chetcuti – Treasurer

Information coming soon.

Gilbert Vassallo – Media

Educated in Kingston, Surrey, Gilbert has worked in tourism for over 20 years and cycled the 2007 LifeCycle Challenge from Bucharest to Berlin. During the training period for that challenge Gilbert took part in some TV shows and radio interviews to increase public awareness of renal failure and treatment.

In 2008 Gilbert joined the LifeCycle subcommittee and formed part of the logistics team that took the challenge from Lourdes to Casablanca, Morocco after a week’s pre-visit through France, Spain and Morocco. This year he will continue to assist the board as media officer and also backing Soner on logistics.

Gilbert also plays drums with RUG (Gianni and friends), Muzzle, and a jazz band called Inbeat. The father of 2 daughters, Gilbert keeps himself busy with other charitable work as well as being a keen cyclist.

Soner Gurelli – Logistics

Born in Izmir, Soner lived in Turkey until 2005 when he moved to Malta to start a new stage in his life. He works for Betfair, and first encountered LifeCycle when Betfair agreed to sponsor the 2009 LifeCycle Challenge.

Because the first half of the 2009 Challenge was in Turkey, Soner was brought on board as an interpreter, and travelled in the backup team, providing support on language and logistics issues.