As a group of 4 cycling friends we try to challenge ourselves with an special event each year and this year we are trying to complete our biggest challenge yet - Chase the Sun North. https://www.chasethesun.org/uk-north/

The event is a mammoth coast to coast from Whitley Bay to Ayr setting off at sunrise (4.20am) and trying to beat the sunset in Ayr by 10.05pm 323km away!! It is a self supported ride and we'll have no support car due to logistics.

We are all keen cyclists but all have families and full time jobs and so training is difficult to fit in which means that this is an immense challenge for us!!!

We have all become friends over the last few years through our church - Holy Trinity Stalybridge, and all got into cycling at roughly the same time - around 2018.

The reason for fundraising for the Severn Hospice is that my (James) step father - Douglas Crossley - was taken extremely ill in 2022 and in April/May of that year was moved into the Severn Hospice for end of life care. The Hospice were amazing and took care of Doug and my mum through this really difficult period. Eventually Doug died on 8th May 2022 - at almost exactly the same time that I was riding up Hardknott Pass (the hardest hill in the Lake District) on a cycling event called the Fred Whitton Challenge. Because of Doug's illness I was undecided whether to ride in the event or not but my family convinced me to. Although I live in Manchester, through the period of Doug's illness, I visited a number of times with my family and the Hospice is an incredible and peaceful place and we would love to raise even just a few funds for it if possible.

More details about Severn Hospice:

Severn Hospice is with families from the moment they're referred to its care for as long as they need it, and it does this every day, all day for anyone in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Mid Wales who needs that help.

It does this for them for free, but it is not without cost and it can't happen without you. For every £1 you donate, the hospice will spend 87p directly on care – and use the remaining 13p to make another £1.

Last year, all those individual donations meant the hospice could be there when it mattered for 3,000 local families.