-Robert Macfarlane, May 2025

Appropriate words as I prepare for another mad cycle ride up a mountain.

Last summer, supported by my team (Chris, Megan, Ann and Noel), I cycled up the 1,900m high iconic Tour de France summit, Mont Ventoux, (in a hailstorm) as I was so horrified at the genocide happening in Gaza.

We raised £25,000 for Amos Trust’s work with highly traumatised children and for the Gaza Sunbirds para cycling team.

It is shocking on so many levels that twelve months later the situation in Gaza is even worse. No aid has been allowed in since 2nd March and the entire population is being deliberately starved.

So I am back, at 83, with an even harder challenge. To ride up the mighty Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees.

It is the highest paved pass in the Pyrenees at 2,115metres high. When it was first added to the Tour de France the riders thought the organisers had gone too far "Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!"

The need is even greater than it was last year and the challenge even harder. Like millions of others, I weep inside daily for the deteriorating situation in Gaza where a cruel and iniquitous war is continuing and nothing seems to bring about a proper ceasefire. People in Gaza desperately need all the support we can give.

Hope is an active force. So, at 83, I respond how I know best - by cycling up a mountain. Fueled by my outrage and the need to raise money for Amos’ Trust’s partners in Gaza, who live hope - every single day.

So please support me, as I seek to raise £21,150, one hundred pounds for every metre climbed for Amos Trust’s appeal for Gaza.