Well, if I were to be honest, I never thought the day would come when I’d be looking to the Conservative party grandee Norman Tebbit for inspiration.  Alas, with my time at Lehman/Nomura having come to an end, and with the markets in an apparently unstoppable freefall, I have decided to heed Lord Tebbit’s (in)famous advice and ‘get on my bike’.  Albeit, I shall not be doing so to ‘look for work’, as he suggested, but instead shall be looking for the East coast of the US, or more specifically, Miami, from a starting point of Seattle, some 3 months and about 5,000 miles to the west.  I’ll be setting off at the beginning of April, paying my own way,  with a bike, a tent and a stove; with a lot of hope, and a whole lot more pain ahead.   

This is not a tour organised by any charity but a number of people who I’ve mentioned I’m doing this to have asked about sponsoring me.  I’ve chosen three charities which I’ve been involved with over the years to tie into this ride which would all be very grateful for any sponsorship you wish to give.  These are; The Speyside Trust, Marie Curie Cancer Care and SPARKS. 

Those of you who worked with me at Lehman will no doubt be familiar with Sparks, which was one of the key charities funded by us at the firm. The charity dedicated to funding pioneering paediatric research across the whole spectrum of paediatric medicine.  The collapse of Lehmans means funding for this charity has been one of the unfortunate victims of the credit crunch.

There are some more details below on the other two charities along with the links to the appropriate Justgiving websites - unfortunately Justgiving requires separate donation pages for each charity :(

Many thanks for any donations,

Fraser

P.s. If you want to follow my progress for the trip (and the training) then I've started up a blog at http://fraserduff.blogspot.com/

The Speyside Trust - Based at Badaguish Cairngorm Outdoor Centre, The Speyside Trust is a small charity helping children and adults with learning difficulties and other special needs enjoy respite care and activities in the Cairngorms National Park.  I have been involved in this charity for a number of years through taking part in their annual Corrieyairack Challenge mountain bike/duathlon race.  http://www.justgiving.com/fraserduff_badaguish 

Marie Curie Cancer Care – this charity provides care to give terminally ill people the choice of dying at home supported by their families.  This is a charity to which I am eternally grateful for the care and help it gave to me and my family in 2005 during my father, David’s, last few months with us. http://www.justgiving.com/fraserduff_mariecurie