Rabies kills 100 kids every day across the world. Most cases are from infected dog bites and it's a horrific way to die. Killing stray dogs is not an effective control measure -new infected dogs just move into the area. Mission Rabies is a project led by Worldwide Veterinary Services to mass-vaccinate dogs in high risk areas such as India. This is a proven strategy to reduce rabies infections and Mission Rabies has the bold aim to eliminate rabies from these areas. The project has been going for less than a year so far and already they have vaccinated over 90,000 dogs and reached over 75,000 children. It's a 'win-win' situation -the dogs don't get killed and kids are saved from a horrible death. You can find more details of the charity at www.mission rabies.com

Those of you who know me will know I like to ride my bike! Last year I rode the London-Surrey Ride 100 and raised £1300 for Bone Cancer Research -thank you to everyone who donated. Compared to the Etape du Tour, the Ride 100 is a walk in the park. The Etape is a mountain stage of the Tour de France which for one day is opened up to the public, a few days before the pros ride it. This is serious stuff and is going to be a real challenge. The 150km course takes in two mountains, one being the Col du Tourmalet -one of the most feared Tour climbs with a 17km section with an average gradient of 7.3%. You just can't train for that sort of climbing in the UK! It's going to be super tough.  Please make it all worthwhile by helping me raise some cash for this very worthwhile cause. Every penny donated goes to the charity; this is not one of those 'raise a grand and we'll send you on  trip' jollies. I am self-financing the trip entirely. More details here: www.letapedutour.com

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.

Thank you !

Andy