I am setting off on April 25 to walk across France from St Jean de Luz on the Atlantic Coast through the Pyreenees to Banyuls sur Mer on the Mediterranean.  That’s a distance of almost 500 miles the way I’m going,  with lots of ups and downs - a total ascent of 30,000 metres or so – over three times the height of Mount Everest!  I must be mad!  To see how I’m getting on, check into my blog at http://pyreneesapieds.blogspot.com/ or follow me on Twitter: @pyreneesapieds.

I’ll get back home just over a month before my 60 birthday so what better way to celebrate and to make it all count than fundraising for the three charities that are close to my heart.  This page is for Julian House, providing services to single homeless men and women in my local area. Although Julian House is not a large organisation the challenge that faces it is significant. Providing a bed is the relatively easy part of its work. Much more difficult is the task of identifying why its clients are in this situation and then finding the right solutions. I have been involved with the charity for a while and am so impressed by the work they do and the way it's done.  There are so many outstanding success stories to recount.  Please visit their website to find out the full extent of their activities.

So you can choose the charity that you would like to support, you'd better have the details of the other two charities I'm supporting through this walk:

- Wherever the Need: helping communities in Africa and India help themselves out of poverty by providing sanitation and water.  The fundraising page is on their own website at www.wherevertheneed.org.uk/individual.htm

- FARM-Africa: helping poor African farmers develop sustainable livelihoods to build themselves a better future.  The fundraising page for FARM-AFrica is at http://www.justgiving.com/walkacrossfranceforFARMAfrica

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.