Story
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>We are leaving tomorrow so any last-minute donations would be fantastic! </strong></span></p>
<p>Thank you for visiting my page! We are aiming to raise as much as possible so any donation of any size will be welcomed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.9pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border-image: initial; padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext;">This Easter Harry Fox, Charlie Karsten and I will be embarking on a 450km cycle from London to Champagne. The trip will consist of four days of cycling beginning on the 31</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">March and totalling a distance of 450km. Day one sees us go from London down to Dover, a gruelling 130km opening day. From there we catch the ferry across to Calais where we will stay the night. We then cycle south through the beautiful French countryside stopping off in Hesdin and Saint- Quentin before we mount our last push. The final day holds a tough 123km push to the finish line in Epernay, the home of the Moet et Chandon cellars!</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.9pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border-image: initial; padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext;">Two thirds of the money raised will help to fund an eco-tourist project for a sustainable travellers lodge in the impoverished village of Pa Lungan in Borneo which we will be building ourselves. Whilst there we will establish a critically needed eco-tourist project, to provide tourists with an opportunity to visit the village, stay in local longhouses, learn their traditional customs and skills, and trek in their surrounding forests. This eco-tourist project will bring valuable, alternative income to the community and reduce the risk of cultural extinction.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.9pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border-image: initial; padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext;">In addition, one third of the funds we raise will be for the Dallaglio Foundation which works with Cancer Research UK and includes the Dallaglio Foundation Rugby Programme – which will change the lives of young, underprivileged people through rugby. Currently the Dallaglio Foundation is helping to fund one of the most ambitious biomedical research efforts since the Human Genome Project. The Dallaglio Foundation will be funding the UK arm of the International Cancer Genome Consortium prostate project, which seeks to understand more about the genetic faults behind prostate cancer and will help us begin to understand why it is such a variable disease.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.9pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border-image: initial; padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext;">The cycle is entirely self-funded and so all of the money raised will go to these great causes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.9pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border-image: initial; padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext;">We would be very grateful to receive your generous donations and would like to make this event as worthwhile as possible. With your help we can!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-indent: 36.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.9pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border-image: initial; padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext;"> </span><em><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Lastly some words from Lawrence that have resonated with us as we set out on this challenge:</span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <em>“The Dallaglio Foundation is about big projects with big targets. Projects that involve people. Not projects that can be achieved by one person but projects that thrive on the power of a team. Projects with a beginning and an end, that leave you with a real sense of satisfaction. I firmly believe that doing something worthwhile should leave you feeling good and wanting more. I hope that the projects we create in the Dallaglio Foundation will do just that, however you get involved with us. We are powerful together.”</em></span></p>