Andy and Charles’ Bike Ride

Overall Story of the Ride

We’ve published this web site to tell the story of our charity cycle ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End, from 24^th May to 3^rd June 2009.

We are Charles Barnascone and Andy Hey, next door neighbours from Claypole in Lincolnshire. Both in our mid-40s and carrying a few extra pounds, in October 2008 we decided it would be great idea to set ourselves an ambitious target to get fit and raise some money in the process. If you’re going to have a mid-life crisis, you may as well do it for charity.

Our target is to raise £10,000 for Rainbows Children's Hospice in Loughborough.  Rainbows is a wonderful place that enriches the lives of children with life-limiting conditions, and their families.  Rainbows is the charity chosen by Steffi, Andy’s wife, to benefit from a programme of fundraising activities during her year as Lady Captain of Belton Woods Golf Club.

The main purpose of this site is to reach as many people as possible for fundraising. We’re also using it to “blog” our progress on the ride, and as a repository of information about our preparations for the ride – training, route, planning etc – for reference by other prospective “end-2-enders”.

We think Rainbows is a great cause.  If you agree and want to sponsor us, you can do so through www.justgiving.com/andyhey . Every pound we raise will help Rainbows with their plan to expand their site so that children and young people over 18 can stay at the same time.

Thanks for visiting our site!

More about the ride

Land’s End and John o’Groats are the traditional end points of the ultimate British long distance journey: between the extreme south-western and north-eastern points of mainland Great Britain. Every year several thousand people make the journey, most of them raising money for charity.  There are walkers, cyclists, runners, skateboarders and even a pensioner who did the entire route in 2008 using a free bus pass.

Most “end-to-enders” take the south to north route (Land’s End to John o’Groats, or LEJOG), taking advantage of prevailing south-westerly winds. We are taking the north to south (JOGLE) route, hoping that we’ll be lucky with the winds and that the map-induced illusion of going “downhill” will act as a psychological spur.

The shortest route for the ride is 862 miles, but as we have no intention of either cycling on motorways or challenging the record time of under two days (no, really), the more scenic route we are taking is about 950 miles. Once a few diversions and missed turns are taken into account, we’ll probably break the 1,000 mile barrier.

We plan to do the ride in 11 days, so that means an average of about 90 miles a day.  Worryingly, the total ascent on the route we are taking is about 15,000 metres or, put another way, over one and a half times the height of Everest!

For two guys of 45 who were out of shape before starting to prepare for the ride, it will be a real challenge. Andy has done most of the ride before, but it was 25 years and several stone ago so can't be viewed as a guide to recent form.  Still, we are confident that the excellent cause we are raising money for will inspire us to reach the finishing post.

You can see the details of our route if you follow this link.

More about Rainbows

Rainbows Children's Hospice, based in Loughborough, Leicestershire is the children's hospice for the East Midlands. Children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions come to the hospice for specialist respite stays, symptom management, palliative and end-of-life care. Their families, too, are supported and helped by Rainbows on their difficult journey. At Rainbows the emphasis is on enriching life and making each minute of each short life count. Each child is treated as an individual and helped by the skilled, experienced team to get the most from life and enjoy it to the full. Visit the website at www.rainbows.co.uk for further details.

We are doing the ride to help Rainbows with their “Building for the Future” appeal.  The appeal aims to raise £4M in order to extend the bedroom area and build a new therapies and leisure complex including a family support lounge and training facilities.  The extra capacity will include six extra bedrooms that will allow more children and their families to stay – a real benefit for everyone allowing Rainbows to offer a lot more care.

Rainbows is the only children's hospice in the East Midlands and is now caring for a greater number of families. Although essential end-of-life care is always available, the number of nights for specialist respite care has reduced. The “Building for the Future” appeal will raise money to redesign and add to the current building thus, hopefully, increasing the number of nights for respite stays to the former level.

Building for the Future will also allow all age groups to stay at the same time, increasing access to the hospice and facilities for all those who currently depend on Rainbows.

This vital project will help enrich and improve the lives of so many families.

[Home] [Route] [Preparation] [Travelblog] [Photos (Part 1)] [Photos (Part 2)]

More about the ride

More about Rainbows

More about Belton Woods Golf Club

The blog

End-to-end repository

Sponsorus

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