Man finishes cycle ride in memory of father and son

THE father of a boy who died after choking at his school has completed the London to Brighton bike ride as a tribute to both his son and his late father.

Duncan Roome, 60, whose son Oscar died after choking on tomatoes at Kidmore End Primary School, completed the ride on Sunday, June 15, with his son Joel, 34.

The pair battled heavy wind to beat their target of four hours of “ride time”, clocking in at three hours and 55 minutes for the 54-mile ride from Clapham Common to the Brighton seafront.

Mr Roome, a bicycle mechanic, said that finishing the ride was especially emotional in the lead up to the two-year anniversary of his son’s sudden passing in June 2023.

The tragedy came a week after Mr Roome had completed his first London to Brighton ride, which he did to honour his dad, Colin, who died in 2021.

Mr Roome said that completing the London to Brighton bike ride felt cathartic and allowed him an opportunity to grieve.

He said: “Doing the ride is trying to keep the memory of them both alive as well as giving something back.

“I have gone from one trauma to the next, so for all of that time afterwards trying to get funeral arrangements sorted out, trying to get home life sorted out while my wife Carol was also in hospital, I had no time to grieve.

“So, doing that London to Brighton, when I crossed the finish line, I just burst into tears. It was then that two years of bottled-up grief came out.

“This year it wasn’t the same, I didn’t burst into tears, but there is that same sense of relief and release that I have done something for both of them.”

Mr Roome raised £1,169 for the Kidmore End School Association and £503 for the British Heart Foundation.

He said that he wanted to support the school association, which provided emotional support to his family following Oscar’s death.

He said that with his youngest child set to leave this summer, that it was his final opportunity to repay it for its support.

He said: “The Kidmore End School Association were absolutely brilliant. It just filled the school with love and things they could do to try and take their mind off the trauma that happened. Whether it was creating a beautiful mural on the wall outside the school, or they have also got a buddy bench.

“My youngest is now in Year 6, so she will be leaving this summer, and our long association with the school is going to come to an end. The cycle was almost like the last chance I had to do something for the school.”

Mr Roome said that his dad died following complications from a dissected aorta, which was inoperable.

He said: “The muscle walls just came apart, so the aorta wasn’t properly functioning. That was inoperable, so we had to watch dad die over eight weeks. For a man who had been fit and healthy for all of his life, to then just suddenly see him wither away in front of your eyes is quite a shock.”

Mr Roome said that he signed up for his first London to Brighton to pay tribute to his father, who had visited Africa with the Royal Military Police while doing national service in his youth.

He said: “He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and on his way up and down he did a flora and fauna report. He was a published poet as well. He wrote a beautiful poem that got published in 1973.

“He did a degree in later life and was a horticultural specialist, so he did conservation work. That is not my kind of thing, what I do is I ride a bike.

“Having that association with the British Heart Foundation seemed like a logical thing to do. We raised £850 that time.”

Mr Roome said that he initially had not planned on applying for the ride this year, following a total hip replacement last August but was convinced by his son, Joel, who had also done the ride with him in 2023.

He said: “We applied for the ballot in September/October time and the British Heart Foundation said we could do the ride for them.

“This year Joel did it for 4Louis, which is a charity which gives memory boxes for grieving parents. They give you two boxes with teddy bears in it, so one stays with the child and one stays with you. You can also do hand prints, put together a photograph album and get engraved jewellery.

“It was nice, if you could call it nice, after Oscar died to have that opportunity to make some memories of Oscar while he was still there before we had to leave him at the hospital. Having those memories and having the memory box was fantastic, which is why Joel was doing the ride for 4Louis this year.”