Hi All,

As the excitement builds and our trip approaches, I thought I would share an idea I had in relation to it.

Its not the ten year celebration of Paris 2 Nice that we had originally planned, its more an escape from hermit living, a chance to soak up the sun, take in all the scenery and relax with friends over cold Rose and beer.

Our original plans included large-scale fundraising, very hard to do given the circumstances, but I do think we can do something and have a charitable aspect to this tour.

Niall McLoughlin has been a Paris 2 Nice hero in relation to his rider recruitment every year whilst he was with Irish Youth Foundation .

We have all heard stories from Niall and Thomas Mc Carthy of all the help they give inner city kids, keeping them away from drugs and trying to keep them in the education system as long as possible.

Thomas was a big influence for my son Dan who ended up studying Social Care (graduated this year) and worked with Thomas in CORE Youth Services and more recently in the Greek Street Flats Youth Project. As a recent graduate Dan is working for free and is happy to do this to gain experience. From September onwards he will be volunteering with the Just Ask After School Project assisting these kids with their homework every day. They also provide a hot meal each day for these kids.

The Irish Youth Foundation and Lucy Masterson (who took over from Niall in every sense job title and support of Paris 2 Nice) are involved with the Greek Street Flats Youth Project through an organisation called Just Ask and Lucy sits on their Fundraising Committee.

Something very interesting for me is that one of the first kids (Chris - details below ) to go through this program is now working as a physiotherapist in Temple St hospital where Dan had his leg operation many years ago who is helping who here?

Support from Lyon to Nice cyclists fundraising would contribute greatly to the running costs of Just Ask.

The first cohort of Just Ask kids started six years ago and was made up of 22 teenage boys, all of whom completed their education and are now all in either third-level education, apprenticeships or full-time employment and are role models for the young people coming behind them. Now the program is also involved in the Primary School age group (this is where Dan is working) as it is vital that these initiatives start as early as possible. We would hope the same positive outcomes will be achieved for the all the kids involved in the Just Ask program which this funding will help ensure continues.

I would very much appreciate if you could support this financially, sharing on your social media or if your company would like to get involved let me know.

Thank You

Tom Kennedy