On 23rd September I set off be setting off from London to Lisbon, a journey of 1,450 miles. I am riding to support an incredible local charity With Love From Layla.

We are all aware of the refugee crisis affecting thousands of children and their families across Europe, Syria and the Middle East. My journey, whilst fulfilling a personal ambition also represents an opportunity to increase the profile and raise funds for this charity.

With Love from Layla has the aim of helping children around the world who have been affected by war and conflict. Layla aged 10 decided to actively help people in need by working in a refugee camp in Samos, Greece, at the start of 2016. Since then she has also been to Athens to help set up the Hope school at the Scaramanga refugee camp.
‘With Love from Layla’ has funded projects preparing and distributing food, funding staff, managing warehousing and logistics to get urgent aid to refugees (most of whom are families with young children) in camps in Greece. For refugee children living in squats in Greece, one of our specialist volunteers set up a play scheme for disabled children and we purchased special sensory toys for these particularly vulnerable individuals. Several children’s cinemas have been established in camps in Greece as well one in the Jungle in Calais. In France we have sent aid to homeless refugees families living underneath the underground stations in Paris. Through our contacts who run an orphanage in Afghanistan we also send donations to help fund this extremely worthy cause. Partnering and working with other organisations is critical to the success of small scale charities like ours and this enables us to send money and items and volunteers in a swift and targeted way.