THE CHALLENGE

Head for Change London to Lyon charity cycle.

Cycling 100miles+ for five days starting in Richmond Park on Tuesday 19th September and London culminating Lyon, France on Saturday the 23rd September.

Over 30 of us will be riding, averaging around 100 miles each day which will be an epic physical and mental challenge. The finale of the event will be the Wales v Australia Rugby World Cup game and so joining the challenge are Welsh rugby legends Ian Gough, Tony Copsey as well as Head for Change (see more below) founder Alix Popham.

Also joining the peloton to support the riders through every mile will be Tour de France winner, Geraint Thomas.

A little bit about my cycling…

Having never been on a road bicycle until starting the middle of July this year, yes only 9 weeks ago, this is quite a feat to undertake (I didn’t even know how to change gears on my first ride). I have however since then given myself a baptism of fire starting with the Box Hill – Surrey loop on my 6th day in, a 70km London – Essex cycle, 110km Windsor loop, huge 200km London to Brighton and back in one day 4 weeks in and several cycles in-between.

Whilst I have a lot more to learn, I have done what I can in the time and looking forward to the challenge and supporting two very worthy causes.

Head for Change (https://justgiving.com/campaign/headforlyon) is the lead charity for the event but I also wanted to contribute to a cause personally and have partnered with The Childhood Trust, both exceptional charities.

You can track my ride here https://nusom.co/events/head-for-lyon/

THE CHILDHOOD TRUST

The Childhood Trust is London’s child poverty charity, targeting 800,000 children living in poverty in London. They help vulnerable children to overcome the disadvantages caused by poverty such as hunger, homelessness, stress, loneliness and anxiety.

As part of their work, they have a program called Decorate a Child’s Life, which myself and our business, Nusom Collective have got behind. Decorate a Child’s life is where they transform children’s bedrooms or rebuild and repair derelict and disused playgrounds and community play areas. As part of my challenge, I will be supporting this area by aiming to raise money and contribute to either new beds or a desks for the children that really need them.

All money raised will go directly purchasing items for these projects and directly benefit the children that need them. I appreciate it is a big ask for people to donate money in times when that little extra is scarce, but equally so is cycling 795km and what you contribute will make a massive difference no matter how small. My ride my be uncomfortable for a few days, but the comfort the beds and desk will provide to the children be priceless and last forever.

You can donate as much or as little as you like, it all goes to the same pot and your contribution will go to change a child’s life.

You can find out more about the Childhood Trust and Decorate a Child's life programme here https://www.childhoodtrust.org.uk/our-projects/decorate-a-childs-life/

HEAD FOR CHANGE

The lead charity on the cycle event is Head for Change, whose goal is to create a safe space for our sporting heroes, past, present and future that suffer from sports-related brain injuries and connect with the best brains in science and research to make positive change.

They are determined to continue to raise awareness and educate people about sports-related dementia in rugby. With your support, they are also fundraising for much needed research in the prevention and cure for early onset dementia and neurogenerative disease in the sport we love. More information and to donate visit here https://justgiving.com/campaign/headforlyon

Thank you in advance for any support you can give…if you happen to know a masseuse I might need their details after the ride!