Thank you for taking the time to visit Matt and Owen's JustGiving page.

15 August 2009. We can hardly believe it - £1243.50 as of 2030 today (Saturday.) Thank you all so very much for your generosity. We are now ready for the off, and have found a way of getting photos onto www.ride4rank.co.uk  - so we'll be updating as we go round on 17th August. Look under the Blog section.

14 August 2009. Hallo everybody - and thank you so much for sponsoring us. We're travelling on Sunday, and doing the mission on Monday. If you haven't sponsored us yet, please do so. If you don't want to do it online, please let Owen know. 

14 August 2009. The weather forecast for 17 August looks ideal. Dry, not much wind, and not too warm or sunny at 21 °C - we shall see!

10 August 2009. The total keeps growing - thank you everybody. A week today, we will be ploughing our way around the Isle of Wight. It will soon be upon us!

03 August 2009. A reported strange celestial glow from South Cambridgeshire is NOT a UFO - but Matt's and Owen's T-shirts. (Blimey - they're loud!)

03 August 2009. We're now over £600 - thank you so much for all your contributions. We're after every penny for this wonderful cause. We're fit (enough), we've got the oil - for the chains and gears (and Owen's joints), and we're really GOING FOR IT!

03 August 2009. If you give through www.justgiving.com/matt-and-owen-smith and you're a UK tax payer, then the tax is claimed back - making your contribution go even further.

02 August 2009. A 33-mile training sortie involves stopping for refreshment at the Chequers, Wrestlingworth. Many thanks to 'mad woman at the pub' Alison, and also to Tom (no relation) for their spontaneous contributions.

02 August 2009 http://www.ride4rank updated again. There's so much going on as we get close to going for it, that we'll be updating every day from now on - so please keep checking it out.

31 July 2009. THANK YOU to everyone who has given, or committed to give. We are so grateful.

Love from Owen and Matt.

What? We're going to camp on the Isle of Wight, and cycle right round it in one in a day - that's over 100km (or 62 miles - sounds more pleasant on the joints.)

When? 17 August 2009, so PLEASE, PLEASE SPONSOR US TODAY. (It's now really rather close!)

Why? To sample as many different ice creams as possible en route.

Why else? To celebrate Clive Towner's life - and the lives of all others we know who have been cared for at Arthur Rank House, to do something constructive, and to have a great laugh.

Who? Matt (young and fit) and Owen (neither.)

Training Regime? Definitely - we're going to discuss it on the way round.

Fish and Chips? Betcha.

Please sponsor us - we've paid for the trip and equipped the bikes, etc, ourselves, so we're ready to go, the ferry's booked, and all the money raised goes to the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, who help to support the wonderful work at Arthur Rank House. "ARH is dedicated to providing specialist palliative care and support to adult patients and their family, friends and carers.  All care is provided free of charge...  The aim is to enable patients and those close to them to live as fully as fully as possible, and make the most of the time that's left." Trust us folks, it's fantastic.

Few - if any of us - get through life untouched by cancer in one way or another. We're just doing a little bit to help improve things.

There is more info at www.ride4rank.co.uk - the website we setup especially for the mission - where you can find a link to Arthur Rank House, and much more besides. We may even run a blog on ride4rank.com during the sortie, if only we can work out how in time. Anyhow, the site's there and waiting for you to take a look.

There'll be no luxury for us - it's two blokes (one young, one not) on pedal bikes with a tent and a couple of sleeping bags. 

We might even find room for Matt's washbag too. More on this news as the story breaks.

We've not badgered anybody months before the event, we haven't scrounged any freebies, and we won't badger you much more - we're just asking you to please help us to help others with this most worthy of all causes.

Blurb start: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. Blurb end.

(If you don't want to donate through Justgiving - maybe you want to wait to see if we're for real about our sortie round the IoW, or you wish to specifically target your giving in appreciation of our efforts, or for any other reason, then please pledge your donation via email - just  drop us a line at sponsor@ride4rank.co.uk with your pledge, and we'll chase you up once we've completed. But please do commit to the cause - now!)

So please dig deep - donate now - and please help us to do the very best we can. We're up for it!!! (And no Lycra!!)

Thanks a million,

Yours,

Matt and Owen