As most of you know the Morning Star Trust have been a major part of my life for several years and helped me to find direction in my life after I left University.

As a small charity the current situation is having a massive impact on MST and while I'm furloughed I'd like to try and raise some money to keep them going.

Any donation, even the smallest ones can help young people have the same kind of life changing experience that I was fortunate enough to have.

In order to raise this money I'm going to try and cycle 26.2 miles (the equivalent of a marathon) every day this week. I'm not a regular cyclist and haven't done a ride of this length in a long time, let alone a 7 days in a row.

UK charities' fundraising has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of fundraising events have been cancelled and many charities, particularly smaller ones, are struggling to maintain services because of this huge reduction in income.

This impacts all sectors of society from children to the elderly as well as the vital work in areas such as palliative care, serious diseases, mental health, housing support, food supplies and countless others that charities support.