Peter's Lands End to John O Groats

Peter Hodgkinson is raising money for Mulberry Academy Shoreditch
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Lands End to John O Groats · 5 August 2022

A school at the heart of our community Mulberry Academy Shoreditch is a secondary school that sits in the shadows of some of the most powerful and wealthy companies in the world, just a stone’s throw from the City of London. But the school is a charity, serving some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in London, if not the country. The last year has been extremely difficult for our students, where they have found themselves locked down in often cramped and inadequate housing with little stimulus and a lack of physical movement that we would like to address as we come out of lockdown and schools begin to return to normal. There is an urgent need to give all students the opportunity in the Summer term, not just to return to the classroom, but to have fun, to experience a trip somewhere, to feel the freedom of the seaside or a camping trip and to enrich their lives and undo the mental and emotional damage that lockdown will have caused. If you feel passionate about helping us to do this for our young people aged 11-18 – please donate to this just giving page – no matter how little or how much – you will make a different to children’s lives and we will acknowledge this.

Story

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

At the beginning of lock down in March 2020 I looked at the bicycle
in the garage that had been sitting there doing nothing and I thought “why I don’t and try and do a few miles each day. I need to lose a few pounds” - so I started to ride the bike in the morning before logging into work. 5 miles a day turned into 10, then 15, then 20. I then rode the round trip to Brackley which was 26 miles and realised I could therefore ride to work once lockdown was over. My car was beginning to gather dust.

 I bought a new bike and started to go for longer rides and as the mileage increased, my weight was rapidly dropping. In October 2020 I did my first 100 mile charity ride for Alzheimer Research UK. After I completed that challenge, I decided to keep riding and see how many miles I could ride in a calendar year. In 2021 I rode 14,588 miles with over 600,000 feet of climbing. By this stage I had lost around 4
stone in weight and according to my Garmin, I had the fitness age of a twenty year-old. I took my firesuit from Le Mans in 1990 out of the wardrobe and it fitted me!

The cycling has continued and since the 23rd March 2020, I have ridden over 27,000 miles. Over Christmas, I was watching a Mark Beaumont documentary on riding Lands End to John O Groats and I thought why don’t I try this.

So, this is the challenge, Lands End to John O Groats, 963 miles in 9 days starting on the 5th August -  and there is no point in taking on this challenge without doing it for charity.

 Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Mulberry Schools Trust are two charities that mean a lot to me for various reasons, so it makes sense that I do this for both of them.

Through the Teams association with Mulberry Schools as part
of the MGP Accelerate 25 initiative, I have worked closely with the students and teachers supporting their Greenpower race  program. It has been a wonderful, incredibly rewarding experience and one that I am proud to be a part of. The students embrace every opportunity that is given to them and are a credit to their school. To see their hard work begin to pay off through wins on the race track, and their collective joy at this achievement is magical and something that I definitely want to see continue for many years. To help add to this fund through the Mulberry Schools Trust is vital as far as I’m concerned.

Alzheimers Research is our team’s charity but I think we all
probably know someone who has been affected by this disease either directly or indirectly, I know I do. There is another Just Giving Page to donate to ARUK.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Donation summary

Total
£457.49
+ £80.00 Gift Aid
Online
£457.49
Offline
£0.00

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