I fell off my bike at 89. It saved my life

I went out for coffee and cake. I came back with one kidney and a medal. It's a remarkable fact that ordinary days can suddenly turn memorable in one way or another...

Norman Lazarus overcame a the London to Brighton, 15 September 2025

It's a day in early spring. Never felt more in trim. Time to get me and my cycle back on the road. I have been cycling in the gym over winter, but those static machines are no match for the feel of wind in the face or the exhilaration of passing landscapes.

The ride is a 50-kilometre round trip today on a familiar route, ending up at a café with great cakes and coffee.

I enter a small lane with humps in the road. As I come over one of these humps, the front wheel sinks into a pothole and before I know it I'm up and over the handlebars, landing heavily in the road. I’m hurt, and do not move because it is better to just lie like a rag doll until the brain can work out whether there is any major injury.

People rush out from the houses overlooking the lane. Their first instinct is to help me up. Bad choice. Do not move a lying body until you've scanned your body for possible trauma. After about five minutes, I pull myself to my feet. A concerned couple offer me a cup of tea - the universal British helpful response to any mishap. I decline, because the café of my aim is just a small way off.

At the café, I order my usual coffee and cake and head for the toilet for my usual pee. You could have knocked me down with the apocryphal feather. My urine was blood red.

I could easily have done a Jackson Pollock, had a canvas available. Now, as a doctor I can tell you that blood in the urine is not something you should mess around with.

So the next day, I take myself off to the doctor, and into what can be described as the stress run for urological investigations. No thinking here, just get on the conveyor belt and let it roll.

How a pothole changed everything

Turns out I have a tumour in my left kidney. From its size, the general opinion is that it's been on the boil in there for a good two years - with not a symptom anywhere. I guess that as long as the tumour was confined to one kidney, the other one took over the workload and compensated for the failing organ.

So, I'm scheduled for a nephrectomy at the end of July 2025, by robotic surgery. This avoids unnecessary tissue damage and smaller scars.

There's one small glitch. I had entered to ride from London to Brighton, about 90 kilometres, in mid-September. That only left me about six weeks or so to get sufficiently healed and functional for a cycle ride with a total elevation of about 3,500 feet.

The medical team tell me that this is an unrealistic goal, as recovery from the op itself generally requires about six weeks, never mind the extra training needed to complete the distance. 

The body’s secret weapon: Resilience

I have been exercising and cycling for about 40 years now, so my basic fitness is fine. One of the major factors that accrue with constant exercise is resilience. Resilience is the body’s ability to recover as quickly as possible from the vicissitudes that life throws at you. Like falling off your bike when you're nearly ninety.

So I felt quietly confident that, even with 50 per cent of the number of kidneys I was born with, I'd bounce back with a gradual return to training.

And on 15 September, I proved the medical team wrong and completed the London to Brighton cycle ride in about six hours, a couple of months short of my 90th birthday.

According to Age UK, I am the oldest participant to complete the distance. However, I am sure many riders around my age may have done the equivalent distance as part of their outings.

No matter. There lies the challenge to other 90-year-olds. Can you pedal from London to Brighton on a bicycle in six hours? Go for it!