I’ve wanted to cycle Britain end to end for a long time, but being a rebel I decided to do the it North-West to South-East rather than the more usual Land’s End to John O’Groats route. Its a bit shorter and as I live in Kent the end point is only 20 miles from home. The only drawback is that the nearest railway station is 70 miles from Cape Wrath and unless I can get a lift I’ll have to cycle to the starting point!
I aim to cycle about 30 miles a day, so the whole trip will take about a month. I’m booked on the train to Thurso on May 2nd, so all being well the trip will start on May 4th and end around June 5th. But weather, technical problems and the strength of my legs may lead to some slippage on this!
The trip works out at a little over 850 miles, so to reach my target I need sponsorship of just under £12 per mile. You can donate a lump sum on here (and gift-aid it if you pay UK tax) or you can email me petertoon@aol.com with a promise of sponsorship so much per mile or a fixed sum, or fill in one of my paper sponsorship forms.
I’ve been aware of the importance of homelessness, particularly for single people since I worked at Centrepoint as a medical student and later at St Botolph’s when I was a GP. If you are homeless then solving the problems which led to homelessness in the first place, be it unemployment, relationship breakdown, mental health, drug or alcochol problems becomes much harder. It’s like falling down into a pit – and charities like Catching Lives drops down a rope to help people climb back up again.
Catching Lives runs a day centre which offers advice and support to homeless people in Canterbury as well as a hot meal and a warm place to sit. Alongside local churches they also run a night shelter throughout the months of December, January and February.
Please give generously to support this worthwhile cause which really does catch those whose lives have fallen through the safety net of the welfare state.
Peter Toon
You can sponsor Peter by clicking here to visit his Just Giving page.
