Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I am taking part in a challenge organised by my gym - to cycle the distance from Land's End to John O'Groats, 874 miles, between 12th July and 5th October 2014. I will be doing this via attending Spin classes and using the stationary bikes at the gym. Reaching the target on time will involve many hours of hard slog; I am not particularly fit and am not yet even in the habit of attending the gym every week, so this is a HUGE challenge for me! So please support and encourage me!

Please read details about the cause to which I am donating and my personal reasons for choosing this cause below.

I visited Luang Prabang in Laos in the Summer of 2012. The people were so welcoming and helpful. Whilst I only spent a week here, I had an amazing experience, which included visiting poor villages to donate books, colouring pencils and toys to children and helping some students with learning English. Some of these students told me how they received funding from a charity to be able to study English; one student's ambition was to perfect his English in order that he could attend university in the USA; one young girl I met was selling jewellery to help pay for books for learning English - she explained how English-speaking tour guides earned good money.

I wished I could have stayed longer to help the students further, and hearing from one of these students first-hand about her life in rural Laos and her determination to travel to Luang Prabang to study English has made me want to do anything I can to continue to help more people in Laos to learn English and improve their lives.

About my chosen charity and how your donations will help:

Global Vision International Charitable Trust  furthers educational opportunities for young, financially disadvantaged, Lao students through sponsorship of English classes, Scholarships for Secondary, Tertiary or Vocational Education and support for temple schools, which GVI has established. The goal of the Project is to disperse the funding across these several targeted groups of financially disadvantaged students. GVI aims to equitably support both girls and boys.

£23 pays for 1 term of English lessons for 1 student

£47 pays for 6 months of English lessons for 1 student

£95 pays for a whole year of English lessons for 1 student.

Please click on the link in the section 'My Project' to learn more; you can also learn more about the charity on their website: www.gvi.org.

GVI is supported by GlobalGiving, a UK-registered charity that screens small projects and helps them to connect with supporters. JustGiving sends your donations directly to GlobalGiving, who in turn ensure that the donations go directly to the GVI project; GlobalGiving will then send me project updates so I can see the difference that the donations have made.

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. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

On behalf of the Lao students, many, many thanks in advance for your kind generosity.