National Charity Challenge Returns to Cumbria after 10 Years!

Every hill I climb, a child in Keswick gets a playground.

On Saturday I met Laura.

Laura lost her child to illness. Most people, after something like that, would never want to go near a hospital again. Laura went back. She now works as an ambassador, helping other families through the worst days of their lives.

I am not raising money for Laura's cause on this page. I am telling you about her because she is the reason I keep doing this. She took the worst thing that ever happened to her and turned it outwards, towards other people's children. That is a very high bar, and the least the rest of us can do is get on a bike.

So on Sunday 30 August I am heading to Keswick in Cumbria for the National Charity Challenge, back in the Lake District for the first time in ten years. Cycling and hiking, hundreds of us from across the country, all in one day.

Where your money goes

The main cause is the Fitz Park Children's Playground Refurbishment Appeal, right there in Keswick. The same town we will be riding through. Local children, a local park, and equipment that has seen better decades.

Keswick It is not a dramatic cause. No one makes a documentary about a playground. But somewhere in Keswick there is a parent who wants an hour outdoors with their child and somewhere safe to spend it, and that matters more than it sounds.

Anything raised beyond the appeal goes to the other charities Mercy4Mankind supports throughout the year. In the last few months alone, that has included a children's hospital and DEBRA UK, the charity for families living with Epidermolysis Bullosa.

What I am asking

A fiver. That is genuinely it. If you can give more, wonderful, but I would far rather have fifty people give five pounds than one person feel awkward about the amount.

If money is tight, share this page instead. That helps just as much and costs nothing.

I will be sore on Monday either way. Let us make it worth something.

Thank you.

#CharityChallenge2026 #Mercy4Mankind #AMYAUK #ServiceToHumanity