Between 3rd – 11th July 2025, Tanya & I will be taking on the Tanzania Cycle Challenge for M.A.G.– the Nobel Peace Prize winning landmine clearance charity, based in Manchester, but operates in 20+ countries globally.

We will be cycling close to 400km over five days, on hybrid mountain bikes due to the nature of the terrain (some on gravel, much off road, some on tarmac). We will set off from the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and finish in Ngorongoro Crater National Park.

We will have armed guards because some of the feline locals like to eat meat and can get a bit hungry (and hangry).

This will be our 10th MAG ride. Our collective fundraising efforts over the years have been incredible (heartfelt thank you to everyone). But international aid funding has been cut by many Governments....and whole de-mining programmes have ceased to exist. But the need for de-mining increases - Gaza, Ukraine are just two areas which will need huge efforts to clear (Ukraine is now the most mined country in the world, and might take 30 years to de-mine).

Our charity bike rides raise about 30% of MAG's entire annual 'unrestricted' funds (funds which can be deployed where MAG thinks best).

So this ride has taken on even more importance in 2025.

Every day, around the world, 15 people are killed or injured by landmines or unexploded bombs and tragically, half of the civilian casualties are children.

I'm raising funds so that MAG can continue to find, remove and destroy even more of these deadly items from places affected by conflict and provide risk education programmes so that people can live, work, travel and play as safely as possible until the land is cleared.

If you're able to sponsor me (and Tanya - we're raising £ together), I'd be hugely grateful.

Thank you

Tom

PS the lady in the middle in the photo is a de-miner in Vietnam who we visited last year. They search for landmines manually - that device is a landmine metal detector. They work for about 9 hours a day in 90 degrees heat/high humidity.

This clearance programme had to close down earlier in the year as US funding was cut.