Ben Sharples is a 12-year-old who is passionate about skiing. He is registered with Snowsports Cymru Wales, races for Ski Rossendale Race Club and also represents English Schools

During lockdown, Ben has really missed his skiing and has been cycling instead to keep himself fit. As a challenge he has decided to locally cycle the equivalent miles of trips that he would have been making to some of his ski races this summer. He would like to do this to raise money for The Ellie Soutter Foundation, which promotes the mental health of young people in sport and has been set up in memory of the much-missed Team GB athlete. The foundations aim is to support promising ski and snowboard athletes, both financially and mentally, to help them fulfil their potential and achieve their dreams – a very worthy cause!

The virtual route will be as follows:

British Championships - Blackburn to Silksworth (117 miles)

All England Championships - Silksworth to Norwich (251 miles)

Welsh Championships - Norwich to Llandudno (259 miles)

And then… HOME! (106 miles)

This is a total of 733 miles which for a 12-year-old is a fair challenge!

Thank you for reading this and for any support at all that you feel you can give.