I'm the Director (ILCR - North of England) for British Red Cross and I'm about to embark on a Bank Holiday weekend journey of around 175 miles on a tiny 49cc Tomos Calibri Moped!  I’ll be travelling from the British Red Cross office in Newcastle to the Knutsford office, where I’m based.  Obviously, I’ll be taking the long route without motorways, as this little bike struggles to reach speeds over 30mph.  I’m a keen biker, more used to Honda VFR’s, Kawasaki and my current Harley Davidson 1200 Sportster, so this ride will be a tad embarrassing.  To top it all, the staff want me to do it in full bike leathers.  I normally wear these anyway, but on a 49cc moped, it wouldn’t be through choice!!

The route will see me pass through Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Northallerton, Thirsk, Ripon, Skipton, Preston, Bolton and Warrington before arriving in Knutsford.  This is quite a ride, so I’ll be doing it over two days on Sunday and Monday.  I’m hoping to be walking normally by the following weekend!!

I’m not one who likes to be embarrassed so this is a huge challenge for me and I wouldn’t have embarked on such a challenge without a worthwhile reason for doing so.  When it came to Red Cross Week, I was considering what I could do that would be a little different and fortunately, with the very dedicated staff and volunteers to support me, I came up with this idea.  Now I come to think about it, I'm not too sure I actually 'volunteered to do it!'

Apart from fundraising for Red Cross week, my main aim is to raise awareness of the charity and what they do in the local community.  Because of my job, I can see
first-hand the difference our service can make to people locally.  Most people are very aware of the work the British Red Cross is involved in overseas, but not so evident are the things we do locally, like support at home, A&E discharge service, emergency response, event first aid, mobility aids, first aid training, refugee services, and so much more.  Fortunately,  it's not until we respond to major incidents such as the Manchester Arena bombing and Grenfell, or local incidents such as flooding, fires, power outages, etc that our emergency response services are highlighted.

British Red Cross is an amazing organisation with incredible staff and volunteers, who really will go that extra mile to help people in crisis.  The least I can do is go that extra mile on a moped!