Children’s speech and language therapist Rachel Harrison is about to embark on a cycling challenge riding the circumference of Dorset to raise awareness of developmental language disorder (DLD).
Rachel, who works for Dorset HealthCare, will be tackling the 200-mile challenge from 29 September and hopes to complete it in four days. She will be starting and finishing in Christchurch, cycling through local towns such as Lyme Regis, Gillingham and Blandford.
Last year Rachel, from Bournemouth, cycled from London to Paris for DLD and in 2023 she paddle-boarded the length of the River Thames. This time she wanted to focus on something closer to home.
She said: “Dorset is a beautiful place and I’m looking forward to exploring more of it. I’m doing this to raise awareness of developmental language disorder, which not many people have heard of, but 1 in 14 people have the disorder.
“DLD is a type of neurodiversity and means that you have significant, on-going difficulties understanding and/or using spoken language, in all the languages you use. For example, people may need longer to process and understand what is being said, they may get words a little muddled or find it harder to remember words.
“I really hope by taking on this challenge more people will be aware of DLD, so that children and adults with the disorder can get the support they need.”
As part of the challenge Rachel is once again raising money for charity RADLD (Raise Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder). She has raised more than £1,000 through her previous challenges, and to support her efforts this time, visit her fundraising page.
Rachel will be joined on the challenge by her DLD mouse mascot. You can follow the journey on Instagram and Facebook where the mouse will also be sharing regular updates.
