Marathon cycle journey in aid of the Piers Simon Appeal (From This is The West Country)

Marathon cycle journey in aid of the Piers Simon Appeal

5:28pm Thursday 29th July 2010

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A GROUP of cyclists are gearing up to cycle the length of the UK next week - riding almost 1,000 miles to raise money for the Piers Simon Appeal.

Jamie Davey, Rob Jackson, James Loveless, Richard Jones, Will Glover, Karma Singh, Laura Sperring, Randall Haime, Jenny Yang and Tim Cousin will be joined on sections of the journey from John O’Groats to Land’s End by Piers’ dad Henry and brother Luke.

Piers’ mum Celia will also be providing an important role as the support crew.

They start the epic ride codenamed JOGLE on Monday (Aug 2) and hope to have reached their destination by August 14.

Sounds tough enough as it is – until you find out that six months ago most of them did not even own a road bike, never mind have the level of training many of us would assume this type of ordeal would require!

Furthermore, the riders are paying all of their expenses themselves, meaning that all funds raised will be donated to continue the excellent work that the Piers Simon Appeal has been doing for the past five years.

A number of local businesses have pledged their support to the JOGLE challenge in a variety of ways, including cut-price cycle tops from Rock & Road cycle shop in Yeovil; signage for the support vans from John Burton Signs; money towards fuel from David Webb Engineering, South West Black Belt Academy and John Burton Signs; and vouchers from Tesco to help the cyclists keep going throughout their trek.

The Park School in Yeovil has also donated use of its school van for the two-week period, which has saved the charity the expense of hiring one.

Luke said: “The support and generosity we have received from local businesses is an enormous boost.

“We are very excited about tackling this iconic cycle route and indebted to those kind volunteers who are freely giving up their summer holidays to be involved. The money raised will go towards assembling another consignment of 'School in a Bag’ kits for disadvantaged children in Sierra Leone.”

The PSA’s School in a Bag kits are designed to help poor, vulnerable, orphan and disaster-affected children throughout the world, who are deprived of an opportunity to learn due to poverty.

Each bag is filled with basic stationery equipment and resources that will enable a child to write, draw, colour, calculate, express themselves and, above all, learn.

The PSA is a disaster relief charity that delivers aid worldwide. It was set up at the beginning of 2005 in memory of tsunami victim Piers Simon from Chilthorne Domer, Yeovil, following his death on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi on Boxing Day 2004.

To date, it has raised over £375,000 to support communities who are victims of disasters and has helped over 30,000 children through its School in a Bag project.

If you would like to make a donation to the appeal or for more information contact Luke via e-mail at lucas@pierssimonappeal.org

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