On the weekend of the 10th-12th August, Michael Phillips, Stephen Leonard, Andrew Hunter and Jonathan Dixon of the Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club, will undertake the gruelling challenge of cycling 874 Miles (the equivalent distance from Land's End to John O'Groats) on a Wattbike without stopping.

We will being doing this for two causes. Twenty percent of the money raised will join the wider fundraising campaign for the construction of a new Performance Centre for all members of the Rugby Club. This is an ongoing project that is desperately needed and both mens and womens teams are fundraising together to make a better environment where all members of the club can train together. Our primary and main cause will be to support the efforts of the mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

CALM recently made headlines when they placed 84 sculptures on the top of ITV tower in London, which represented viscerally the, on average, 84 men who commit suicide every week in the UK. Suicide has become the number one killer of men under 45. In our opinion this completely unacceptable that in our society the most likely thing to kill a man is himself. Unfortunately, this is something that the CURUFC community has had to recently experience in the worst circumstances. It effects all people. Fathers, uncles, nephews, brothers, sons, boyfriends, friends; these men leave absolute devastation in the lives of all who know them and all who loved them. CALM is by its own admission a small but growing charity. It is small because it relies on volunteers and employees who willingly accept lower wages in order that as much money as possible goes directly to the campaign for greater mental health care in the UK, as well as operating their own crisis hotlines and counselling services. £7 can pay for one call that could save a life, £23 pays for someone to take calls for an hour, £80 pays for their website for a day, £160 keeps one phone line open from 5pm to midnight for an evening.

Regardless of who we are, all members of the Club are directly or indirectly impacted by the reality of mental health issues. That is why eighty percent of all money raised will go to CALM.