Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

 Although the government has now guaranteed the funding of the construction of the Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, overlooking Gold Beach, the Normandy Memorial Trust is still in need of funds for the construction of the Education and Visitor Centre. This is rightly considered to be an essential part of the Memorial, informing, as it will, future generations of the part played by those heroes of the liberation of Europe. Extra funding is also required for the embellishment of the site. The Memorial will bear the names of the 22,442 who died under British command between June and August 1944.

Belatedly I have discovered that many have already made huge efforts to raise money for this charity and as my father’s name will appear on these stones I am very grateful to them. My father, Sgt. Harry Salmon, was killed in action in July 1944, whilst serving in D Company of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and is buried in the war cemetery at Fontenay-le-Pesnel, a few kilometres to the west of Caen. He was born in Stoke on Trent and played football for Staffordshire schoolboys. He then joined Stoke City as a professional - Sir Stanley Matthews was a younger member of that squad of players. He was then transferred to Millwall and later played for Shrewsbury Town.

It is my intention to do a sponsored bike ride to raise money for the Trust. I plan to ride from Dieppe to Ouistreham in early June. It is difficult to calculate the exact distance as I shall be searching out the quiet country roads but it will be in the region of 270 kilometres. My planned staging posts are :- Totes, Bourg-Achard, Lisieux, Caen, Bayeux, Ouistreham (passing through Fontenay-le-Pesnel and Ver-sur-Mer)  

In my youth I was reasonably athletic; I played a lot of sport, cycled and even ran a couple marathons. Now, however, at 81 years of age, partially deaf with a heart attack and knee replacement on my medical records I am , perhaps, being a little optimistic, particularly as I intend to ride alone and unsupported. I should add that I haven’t owned a bicycle for many years but am hoping to avoid mechanical failures, punctures, etc. and  indeed, falling off the bike either through weariness or an over-consumption of wine the previous evening!

Incidentally, my wife and I have recently moved into a new-build house in Tenterden, Kent, where the roads are named after local families who have made the ultimate sacrifice and the road name-boards bear the symbol of the remembrance poppy.

Any support , no matter how small, will be much appreciated.