Hi everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page.

Many of you will remember my efforts last year in cycling Lands End to John O'Groats (LEJOG) and, thanks to your overwhelming generosity, the fantastic sum of £5,000+ was raised for my chosen charity SNAP.

This past year has been a massive endeavour for SNAP to widen their catchment area from Inverness to the whole of Highland. Now more than ever fundraising is crucial to help them raise much needed funds to support more children, young people and their families across Highland with additional support needs.

So what's the gig this year? Well, you will all be aware of the Tour de France where teams of professional cyclists spend 3 weeks on the road including 6 mountain climbs in the French Alps. Yep, you have guessed it: I will cycle 6 of the mountain routes used by the Tour over a period of 6 days!! This is the equivalent of Mt Everest 1.5 times !

I also agree with you that this is complete lunacy. As I write this I'm asking that age-old question " what the hell am I thinking about !" However I know what I am thinking about - I'm thinking that no matter how tough, how difficult, how sore I will get, how many times I will want to stop it's never as tough as having to spend each and every day of your life in a wheelchair, or with special physical and emotional needs. So, relying on your generosity (again 😀) I am aiming to raise £1,500 as my starting target. Having met the SNAP kids, staff and Dawn Walker who heads up the charity I know the cash makes a huge difference to all concerned.

Last year many of you left me comments on this page - please believe me when I say I found these words of encouragement so very, very helpful so thank-you. (and same again this year please!)

Finally, I'll be posting the day's route etc on Strava (PatrickNC500) and Instragram (patricknc500)