Hello Everyone

Thanks for visiting our fundraising page.

Our team of four (Marc White, Dave Seddon, Colin Seward and Paul Clements) will be participating in The Alpine Challenge 2009, taking place from September 25th - 27th 2009.

The Alpine Challenge is to teams of four to cycle in relay over 500 miles in three days from Laon in northeastern France to Annecy in the French Alps raising much needed funds for charity along the way.  We start at Laon first thing on the Friday morning cycling through Chablis country on, cycling hard for 3 days, heading up to the Jura mountains ski stations on the way and finishing at Lac Annecy on Sunday evening.

You can see event details and routes at: http://www.challengeadventurecharities.org.uk/ 

We are just 4 "ordinary people" rising to this physical challenge to raise money for charities through personal and corporate sponsorship.  Whilst half of all we raise will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK we will donate the other half to our charity of choice and this year it has a truly personal connection...

The charity is SILA – and they are completing research on a disease called Sarcoidosis (yes I know... SarcoiWHAT???!!???)...this will tell you more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcoidosis but in short it is a disease that acts a lot like cancer but it is very often mis-diagnosed and unless cought early there are no known cures.  additionally of course, unlike cancer, most people have never heard of it.  We will give the funds raised to SILA, the main research and support charity - http://www.sila.org.uk/.
 
It is something that Marc has personal reasons to support as his best friend (Big Neil for those who know him) is in fact suffering from this and is now terminally ill.

Please help us to with your generous support for all of these worthwhile charities!

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Challenge Adventure Charities gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

As some of might rememeber, last year we also did a blog along the way (thanks Colin) and we will repeat a similar blog during the challenge again this year - last years blog can still be viewed at: http://velovosges2008.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html 

Thank you for your support!