A daily handover of a baton was an early idea suggested by a member of the transplant team at one of the transplant centres to be visited each day by riders on the Transplant Tour.
Wokingham based craft wood turner Dave Osborne has turned the idea into truly beautiful reality in a combination of solid walnut and sycamore as you can see below.
Tour organiser Dennis Carver donated his living organ donor pin to be integrated into the head of the baton (click the arrow to see the other two images)
Each day there will be a handover of the baton from one of the riders who is a kidney donor to a kidney recipient at a regional transplant centre before the baton moves on to the next one with the riding team.
The baton as a symbol of the gift of the living donation of an organ by one person to another unrelated one is a strong one. It represents the gift of life or a hugely better quality of life.
Thinking of a relay race we'll be starting or changing over at;
Lap 1 - Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Lap 2 - Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Lap 3 - St James Hospital, Leeds
Lap 4 - Northern General Hospital, Sheffield
Lap 5 - Manchester Royal Infirmary
Lap 6 - Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
Lap 7 - Churchill Hospital, Oxford
For those with a keen eye you'll have noticed that there are 7 hospitals and 6 days. On the final day we visit both the QE and the Churchill.
Oh and in-between we'll be riding 500 miles in 6 days including some of the steepest gradients the UK has to offer