On 22nd-24th June, we will be cycling 300 miles from Surrey to Devon to raise money for two wonderful charities in honour of my 9-year old son, Toby, who died on the 26th May 2024.

Matthew (Toby's Dad), with friends Neil and David, will be riding a 100 miles per day on 3 consecutive days, and up a lot of hills. Paul and Richard, from Tadley Rugby Club, will join us for day 2.

We will split the funds raised 50/50 between the two charities. The first is Shooting Star Hospices where Toby was cared for in his final weeks and where he died. They are a fantastic organisation who care for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families, all in an environment with a wonderfully kind and loving culture. Shooting Star costs £10m per year to run across the two sites, and is a charity, so relies on donations to keep open. More information at www.shootingstar.org.uk

The second charity we are supporting is the Make Way Foundation, which we set up last year inspired by Toby. The charity buys wheelchairs for children with disabilities. For a disabled child their wheelchair is their legs, it's their access to the world and their freedom, but we learnt through Toby’s journey the challenges many children face getting what they need in the UK. There are tens of thousands of children needing help every year, wheelchairs cost thousands of pounds, and awareness of our new charity is growing fast, so we need to keep raising money to keep helping more children. More information at www.makewayfoundation.org

Our route starts at Shooting Star’s Hospice in Guildford, Christopher’s where Toby died. On the first day we will finish at Tadley Rugby Club who have picked the Make Way Foundation as their President’s Charity for this year. On the second day we stop at the town of Langport in Somerset before riding on to Plymouth on Day 3, where we will finish the ride at Unique Mobility, the retailer from whom the Make Way Foundation bought its first chair.

Please do all you can to support us. It will help keep our heads down on the gruelling third day as we cross all the steep hills into Devon to be doing this in Toby's memory and knowing we are helping more children through these two charities.