As I hope most or you are aware our gorgeous daughter Lois Evelia Fischer was born last week, joining her adoring sister Nancy and slightly bemused brother Sidney in this crazy world.  Right now she has a huge family around her and lots of love and attention but sadly this is not the case for all children as they enter this world.  In celebration of both her birth but also sparing a thought for children in less fortunate circumstances I am proposing to undertake a charity event in aid of Barnados, one of the UK's leading children's charities. 

Barnados has moved on a bit since the days of running children's homes (they don't run homes anymore) but in any year they work with something like 100,000 children, young people and families, in hundreds of  specialised projects, throughout the .  Whatever the issue from education to disability, youth crime to drug misuse, sexual abuse to domestic violence, poverty to homelessness.  Every Barnardo's project is different but each believes in the potential of children and young people, no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. 

To raise money I will be cycling to work on the 23rd of May, which given I cycle every day seems a bit of a cop out - the difference is that on the 23rd I will be cycling not to the office in London but the HQ in Milton Keynes, a trip of around 70 miles.  Needless to say it will require an early start (4ish) and probably mean a relatively late arrival at the office, but I genuinely expect to get something of a days work done in the office before getting the train home - my aim is to beat least least one person into work that day, even if it's only Eddie Barber.

So please make a donation to this worthy cause.  I know these donation sites are a bit of a hassle to use but it genuinely does make a difference and has the added benefit of getting the government to dip their hands in their pocket by paying the tax back.   

Thanking your kind generosity in advance,

Guy