On April 4th 2009 at 3.42pm in Sydney, Stephane and Capucine’s son Ilhan was born at the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick (Australia). Their beautiful baby boy was showing all the normal signs of a healthy baby at birth, however, in reality, this day marked the beginning of a long road to recovery for their son. Doctors had found out a few weeks prior to birth that their baby was showing signs of “a decreased kidney function”.

As it turned out, their baby had major kidney malformation and their happiness at becoming new parents was marred by their distress for their son. The following three weeks after birth were spent at the newborn intensive care unit of the hospital, in which Ilhan was closely monitored day and night.

While at hospital, Stephane and Capucine met with many other parents, also in distress, facing the cruel challenge of seeing their babies struggling in their first moments of life. But thankfully, due to the hospital staff and doctors that cared for their son from birth, they have felt reassured and have focused more on their future with Ilhan coming home.

Now looking back, they are grateful that Ilhan was born at a time when medical research has advanced in the renal and urology area. A few years back, their son’s future would have been very different.

Stephane and Capucine realised the importance of community support from charity events, corporate sponsorships, and other forms of donations, for medicine to advance to help children with serious illnesses. This prompted them to think and act!

They decided to run a charity ride to raise as much money and awareness as possible. The money collected will help doctors, nurses and other registered medical staff for research within the renal and urology department.

The charity ride will be run over 100 days and will commence in Sydney (Australia) and finish in Paris (France).