It is a great privilege to be the Mayor of St. Ives this year. I have lived here since 1990, and grown to love this place and the variety of its residents. However, since being a town councillor, and especially last year as deputy mayor, I have learnt so much more about the many passionate people within the community who make St. Ives the place it has become.

One of the roles that I am delighted to take up is to provide fundraising support to some of those groups within the community that have a profound effect on helping St Ives grow and flourish.

This year I want to focus on three distinctive ways in which St. Ives, Cambridgeshire thrives: its geography; its history and; its people.

As a result, I want in particular to begin by supporting the work of three dedicated groups within the community.

1. The Holt Island nature reserve, especially helping to repair the paths that cross the site.

2. The history outreach work of the Norris Museum to the local schools, especially providing equipment to support children's activities.

3. The Huntingdonshire volunteer service, especially for new equipment required to support the newly extended volunteer drivers scheme.

In addition, I want to support local work to help care for the development of mental health services, particularly for young men in the community, in light of recent tragic events that have occurred locally. I haven't yet found the particular way to achieve this.

So, how shall I raise the money to support these great causes. Usually, a number of events are arranged, and some of these might arise during the year, the Christmas concert is already being planned along with a quiz. However, I don't have much experience of event management, so I thought I would take up 12 physical challenges over the next 12 months, hopefully you will be inspired to sponsor me during these trials.

The 12 trials will be a mixture of local walking, running, cycling and hopefully rowing. So far, I have planned.

1. Jun 2nd. Walk and Ride the Cambridgeshire Busway, 22 miles on foot, then 22 miles by bike.

2. Jun 9th. 55 mile bike ride during the Bromswold Bike Fest, 2018

3. Jun 23rd. 46 mile Pathfinder March around the sites of the local airfields.

4. Jul 15th. St Ives 10k run

5. Early September, Stadtlauf in Stadtallendorf, a 10k run in our twin town in Germany.

6. Oct 14th, Great Eastern Run, half marathon.

7. April 2019, Richardsons Rumble Sportive, 67 mile bike ride around St Ives.

The 42 Battalion Royal Engineers at RAF Wyton have also offered to arrange a challenge for me, I am yet to find out what that might be. I will add the others as they are confirmed, hopefully including something on the river in the summer.

Perhaps you will consider sponsoring me either per event, or as a whole, any donation will be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading so far, all that's left for me to do now is to just get on with it!