This will be my fourth Queen Eleanor Cycle Ride (QECR 2023) to raise money for The Connection, a Charity that helps rough sleepers in Westminster to a new life.

The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields works with people, not just for them, as they recover from life on the streets and move on to more meaningful futures and a place to call home.

The many underlying causes of rough sleeping are addressed as well as practical help offered. Work amongst the most vulnerable clients is truly "trauma informed".

St Martin-in-the-Fields, just by Trafalgar Square, has been on the frontline helping people in crisis for over one hundred years.

I will be one of about 30 riders who will follow the route of Queen Eleanor's funeral cortege (just over 210 miles!) from her place of death in Harby via Lincoln to Westminster Abbey, visiting the towns through which the cortege passed (including my home town Stamford) and viewing the remaining Eleanor Crosses erected by her husband Edward I between 1291 and 1295. We will finally pay our respects at her tomb in St Edward's Chapel behind the High Altar.

Although well supported we will nevertheless experience something of "sleeping rough" on church floors on the way down to London!!

I thank you in advance for your generous support of such a worthy cause but please (if you may) Gift Aid your donation to increase its value!

Wish me well to keep the pedals turning up the hills....!

Thanks again

Chris

Some interesting links about Queen Eleanor, Edward I and the Eleanor Crosses

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/royals/edward-i-and-eleanor-of-castile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Castile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_cross