Story
<p>Hi,</p>
<p> hope you have all had a good summer. I have been working hard over the summer training for a few events coming up. Apart from a 10k race, a half marathon and a marathon left still to do in September I have agreed to doing a London to Paris bike ride at the end of the month. This is in aid of Regain - a spinal injury charity who have helped me and many like me to purchase equipment to enable young active people who suffer spinal cord injury to get back in to sport or help them with equipment to make independence and daily life easier. </p>
<p>I will be cycling about 80 miles per day for 3 days on my hand bike at the end of september going from London to Paris in a group of about 70/80 cyclists with 5 handcyclists. This is going to be really tough and further each day than I have even done before. It will really be a tough event for me taht wil really push me to my limit. </p>
<p>I need to raise £1500 for this which will go to the charity Regain. I have already done some fundraising for this recently in Sainsburys - see photo, but I would like to top this up to the £1500 needed through this Just Giving website.</p>
<p>In addition and if I manage to make the £1500 for Regain any further amount I make over the £1500 level will go to help towards my Paralympic hopes for 2012. I am currently racing under the coaching of Hayley Ginn from UK Athletics and am training hard to achieve qualifying times before the july 2012 deadline for getting the required qualifying times before the Paralympic 2012 selection process is made. I have a chance of being selected and currently have already achieved some qualifying standard times and am close to others. I will be training hard over the winter and hope to get all the other times I need in the next racing season on the track. In the mean time I have my T52 Berlin marathon win for the last 2 years to defend and I will be looking into other races to attend at the end of this season and the start of next. However equipment costs, flights, hotels, etc, do not come cheap and being just outside the top 10 IPC ranked athletes in the world (I am currently ranked 14 th for the 100m) I am just outside receiving any funding from UK Athletics. Some people have asked how they can help with this and I think combining these 2 events for fundraising is a good way to help another charity and hopefully help me with my Paralympic dreams. </p>
<p>Any amount you feel you can donate will be really appreciated by both Regain helping others who have had spinal cord injuries like myself and also my Paralympic prospects. Thanks for your time and for any donations you feel able to make.</p>
<p>Rob. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</p>
<p>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 - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.</p>
<p>So please dig deep and donate now.</p>