Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

In September 2015 the RAF Spitfires Rugby 7s will embark on a charity bike ride - on Brompton folding bikes - in recognition of the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain,  in which the iconic Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft earned their place in history!  The RAF Spitfires will ride around various Battle of Britain sites in the South East of England to raise money for our 3 main charities; Khelo Rugby, the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (RAFBF) and the Royal Air Forces Ex Prisoner of War Association.  

The Spitfires will set out on bicycles from RAF Northolt covering over 250 miles around Kent and the South East before returning to RAF Northolt a few days later (the final route is not confirmed yet). They plan to set out on 15th September, the day chosen each year to mark the Anniversary of THE famous battle of the skies.  En route we will visit places such as Runnymede and Biggin Hill to learn more about the Battle of Britain and also to pay our respects to the brave men and women who protected our country as we do today. This will be a huge test of endurance and team work for the Spitfires players who normally train hard for short, sharp games of 7s! We will truly be sweating it out for charity, so please give generously!

You can help to support by donating via this page or to donate £3 please text SPITFIRE to 70660.

This charity ride is the Spitfires' second charity ride, following a longer ride which we embarked on in May 2013, cycling 517 miles from Glasgow to Twickenham. The event in September 15 will continue to raise money for the RAFBF and Khelo Rugby. The RAFBF raise money for RAF personnel, past, present and future,  their partners and children who will be supported whenever they are in need. Khelo Rugby is a Tag Rugby project for disadvantaged children in India. We will have been involved in coaching Tag Rugby to children in the poor areas of Calcutta for 5 years by September 15. Khelo is expanding within India and to new countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan & Vietnam. This is really helping grass roots rugby in developing rugby nations and is helping young, disadvantaged children - it works, it's brilliant. These are two fantastic charities that do a lot of great work, both at home and abroad.

Our ride in 2013 raised sufficient funds to pay for a replica guard tower which was completed on 24 March, 2014 for the 70th Anniversary of the Great Escape. The guard tower sits on the exact spot, and is the exact dimensions, as the real guard tower that over looked the PoW camp Stalag Luft III, the camp made famous by the Great Escape. Money raised in 2015 will help pay for the last 2 memorials that will mark out the Long March route - the march that POWs at Luft III were forced to do in January 1945 as allied troops closed in on the camp. The brutal march, in temperatures as low as -20C was in some ways a walk to freedom for POWs such as Air Commodore Charles Clarke OBE, now in his 90s who is President of the RAF PoW Association and with whom we work closely. 

Due to operational and other work commitments we can not guarantee that the proposed events in 2015 will take place until closer to the time.

We hope to have several celebrities riding with us. Watch this space to see who they are.....

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.