Along with 17 colleagues and friends, I’m riding from London to Amsterdam starting on 14 June. It will take 4 days, cycling through Kent, into France, across Belgium and on to Holland, just short of 300 miles. Some of our team are serious riders but most are just your average electricians and plumbers.

Why?..... We’re doing it for Steve.

Steve is a young man that works for one of our sub-contractors. Fit & friendly and someone who has raised money for charities in the past, Steve now needs help himself. Last summer Steve was involved in a life-changing accident at work when a section of steel fell from a hoist above him. It left him with a fractured skull and severe brain damage. He would very likely not have survived had it not been for the actions of his work mates, and now faces a long and painful struggle back to health. He spent a great deal of time in hospital and will need very extensive and long-term care and physiotherapy to make sure he has the best chance of recovery.

Everyone in the team is training hard, eating well, getting the miles in and looking forward to the challenge. We’ve decided that no matter how hot, cold, windy, wet or rough the roads are, it will be nothing compared with the journey that Steve is on. Collectively we’re hoping to raise £25,000 and I’d be so grateful if you could help me to support Steve and his family as he battles his way back to health.

This is the plan:

Day 1 London to Calais via Dover and a ferry – 76 miles, 4300 ft ↑

Day 2 Calais to Bruges – 75 miles, 1000 ft ↑

Day 3 Bruges to Rotterdam – 86 miles, 1500 ft ↑

Day 4 Rotterdam to Amsterdam – 55 miles 300 ft ↑

Thank you for reading this and for any support you can give. It will mean such a lot to Steve and his family.

Thanks, Gavin