Hi All,

Ben, Boydie and myself have just cycled from Land's End to John o'Groats.  It was awesome fun - but also pretty tough, not least putting up with Boydie's grumpiness and Ben's chat! Poor Boydie and Ben had to put up with some 'wind assistance' from their third team member.  Apart from great weather at the start and end of the journey, we struggled against rain and unfavourable (meteorological) wind in Scotland, forced creaking knees and and other joints to actuate more times than they really wanted to, and ate incredibly large quantities of food.  Over the 9 days, we cycled 930 miles and covered and climbed 15,000 metres (so our satnavs tells us!).  It was great fun, even if Boydie and Ben at times didn't need to be reminded of this fact by their rather overenthusiastic third team member.

Have a look at some of the photos here: www.tiny.cc/lejogflickr

Cutting straight to the point, it would be great if you could support one of our chosen charities - Five Talents, whose mission is to fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives by empowering the poor in developing countries using innovative savings and microcredit programs, business training and spiritual development.  Basically, this means giving people an ethical loan so they can start a business, therefore sustainably helping them help themselves.  Once the loan has done its work and helped set up a thriving business / livelihood, the money is paid back to Five Talents who then reinvest it, thereby helping more people and recycling the initial charitable donation.

I support this charity myself, have done some basic due diligence on it and am comfortable that it genuinely makes a difference rather than just 'talks a good game'.

Obviously it would be great if you could donate through this page, but more useful for the charity would be if you went straight to Five Talents and set up a direct debit - contact the charity directly on 020 3326 0426 (or email vanessa.henegan@fivetalents.org.uk). If you Gift Aid it, the charity gets loads extra (and you might be able to claim more back on your tax return).

Many thanks for reading this far and thanks for your support.

Cheers.

Alex, Boydie and Ben