From 18 to 20 September I’ll be cycling across Britain from Whitehaven on the Irish Sea to Sunderland on the North Sea – a daunting 140 miles across the Lake District and the Penines. All in aid of the charities Cool Earth and Africa Foundation.

I'd appreciate any help you can give to help this great cause!

Africa Foundation works to empower and develop rural communities in east and southern Africa, focusing on education, healthcare and income generation.

The money I will raise will go towards building a much-needed classroom in a chronically under-resourced school in South Africa. Education enables communities to break out of the poverty trap and enhance their quality of life. An additional classroom will raise the profile of the school, provide jobs for the community, reduce classroom overcrowding and give a new generation the chance to stand on its own two feet.

Cool Earth is Britain’s fastest-growing environmental charity. It works to protect endangered rainforest in a bid to combat global warming, protect ecosystems and provide sustainable jobs for local people.

Rainforests are one of the world’s most important resources, home to more than half of all living plant and animal species, responsible for the production of more than a fifth of the world’s oxygen and fresh water, and paramount to regulating the earth’s temperature.

Yet every minute 100 acres are cleared for unsustainable farming, logging and grazing. Every acre that is burned releases 260 tonnes of climate-warming CO2 – making deforestation responsible for 25% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions.

Every £70 I can raise for Cool Earth will protect a threatened acre of rainforest, helping to keep carbon where it belongs!

If you can donate anything I’d be very grateful.