After completing Ride to The Somme in 2017, I’ve decided to take up the challenge again and get back in the saddle for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. This September’s D-Day Cycle Ride will commemorate the cycling soldiers and the part they played on 6 June 1944 and the following Battle of Normandy. Before we take the ferry to Ouistreham on September 4th we start at Southwick House, which became the HQ for the Allied Commanders in 1944. My mother was employed there in a communications role while at the same time, my father was travelling over to Normandy to do his bit as part of the D-Day landings campaign.

The ride will include all the significant beaches used for the landings and will also head inland to include the key locations that were the first to be liberated, including Pegasus Bridge, Merville Battery and Sainte-Mère-Église. I believe that this will be a fantastic cycling event but also an appropriate way to pay respects to those cyclists from 75 years ago who were among the 156,000 soldiers that landed in Normandy.

As Chief Executive of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, I see first-hand the increasing importance of the work we do to support those in need within the Armed Forces community. I would be very grateful for any sponsorship contributions in support of my challenge, which will help us to continue that vital work.