*** Thanks to everyone for your support during my trip. I'm now back in the UK and giving my knees a well earned rest. Now I'm making a final push to raise the rest of my fundraising target so please don't think that it's too late to sponsor me! Take a look at my blog www.luluboo.wordpress.com for more details of my adventures. ***

Through personal experience I've been aware of St Wilfrid's Hospice since my pre-teens, when this fantastic charity proved an amazing resource and point of support for my family through the long illness and death of my Grandad. All in all they have supported us through the deaths of three of my grandparents, and it is because of this support - given to so many families in our position - that I am using my trip to support St. Wilfrid's Hospice.

St Wilfrid's Hospice's services made it possible for our loved ones to stay at home and receive the care they needed throughout their illnesses by providing:

    - emotional care for all of us

    - social care know-how of how to get what my grandparents needed through the benefit system, to facilitate their care and support

    - day care and therapeutic activities for the patients

    - lunches and social occasions for the bereaved spouse to help him regain his life and re-engage in social activities

    - someone to listen at all times

    - very quick responses and support by phone or by turning up in person

In the 110 days that I plan to cycle c. 5,000km around southern, eastern and central Europe, St Wilfs will have needed to raise £1,453,430 in order to receive the 3,000 referrals for its services. My £1,000 fund-raising target is a fraction of this figure, please help me to support this fantastic charity by giving what you can.

A few facts and figures:

From 1987 to 2009 St Wilfrid's Hospice has received over 10,000 referrals and now averages around 600 per year. Around 40% of the people St Wilfs is involved with are never admitted to the in-patient unit, but are supported at home, at the day hospice and in hospital.

There are 210 or so patients under St Wilfrid's Hospice's care at any one time – in their own homes, in hospital, in nursing homes or in the Hospice. The community nurses make over 3,500 home visits per year.

Yet in 2009-10 the hospice's running costs will be  £4.8 million, of which only 10% comes from the NHS. The balance comes from extensive fund-raising efforts.

It costs £13,213 a day to run St Wilfrid's Hospice and deliver high quality specialist palliative care services. I hope to be able to raise just a fraction of this cost, and so support the excellent and ongoing work.