Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I am raising money for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. 

Some of you may not have heard of SSAFA but these people do amazing things (see below) - Some people will be aware of the big things they do but its the little things that can make all the difference - like a chair!

I will always remember travelling up to Scotland with my two daughters three days after the youngest having had her appendix removed at Blackpool hospital.  She felt every bump in the road, who knew motorways arent actually smooth?  It was so painful, but this girl was so determined to meet her dad's ship, HMS Bangor, as they came back after a very long deployment.  He didnt even know she was coming.

We turned up that morning exhausted and were greeted by a SSAFA volunteer who not only recognised us from a visit two years early but saw quite clearly that my daughter was struggling to walk.  She found us a wheelchair (no idea from where), supplied us with refreshments and when the ship came alongside she cleared a path for daughter and dad to be reunited after 8 months. we all cried.  I will never forget that day and the difference that SSAFA volunteer made - we need more of these heroes to support our service personnel and the families at home.

So when at the start of 2021, I was looking for something to challenge myself, a focus, a desire to do something different and i came across this challenge in a running magazine of all places - this was the challenge for me.  I will be honest, I havent ridden a bike since I was a teenager, absolutely frightened of riding on a road yet I knew that cycling the Nile, (an average of 60 miles a day) would  be a fabulous challenge for me, a focus.  When asked if i would like to fund raise, SSAFA sprang to mind, so many of our serving personnel and their families are overcoming challenges on a daily basis and if i can raise some funds with my mad challenge then how simply perfect to give back and make sure there are more chairs for more families at more homecomings.   

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, has been providing lifelong support to our Forces and their families since 1885. Last year our teams of volunteers and employees helped more than 79,500 people in need, from Second World War veterans to young men and women who have served in more recent conflicts, and their families.