I’ve been lucky enough to spend my entire career promoting and helping to manage the waterways.  I came to the job with a love of the canals inspired by my Dad who organised magical boating holidays for the family and friends in my teenage years.  

I was quite an ‘anorak’ at school, always choosing canals as the topic for all sorts of project work.  Then I got involved with the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust while at Reading University.  After graduating, I stayed on in a research position working on -  guess what?  - and organised what were probably the very first large scale surveys of leisure use of the waterways, discovering who enjoyed the waterways and why. That was my passport in 1976 to a ‘proper’ job as British Waterways’ Research Officer .  

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then (sorry!) but over the years, along with many of my BW colleagues, I increasingly felt that waterways were too precious to be left to the whims of remote politicians and civil servants and that their full potential could only be realised in the charity sector.  I’m really proud to have contributed to the huge exercise that has led to the formation of the Canal & River Trust.

Joining the bike ride to Brussels (which will mostly be along towpaths once we get across the channel) will be one of the highlights of my career, particularly if you help me to raise plenty of funds for the new charity - funds which will ensure that magic canal boat holidays will continue to inspire youngsters for years to come. 

Corporate sponsors have kindly covered the costs of this trip so every pound you give will be used directly to help the waterways. 

Do please be as generous as you can!   Thank you!