I guess I didn't really think too much about how hard cycling to Paris would be when I agreed to it with friends, more about how much fun we would have, and how utterly amazing it would be making my debut into Paris cycling up the Champs-Elysees and celebrating in front of the Eiffel Tower knowing I had cycled 4 days to get there.

So fast forward to several months later, and the reality of the cycling training has been far from glamorous. It is safe to say I have lost my mind a couple of times through sheer exhaustion, for example when Ben (our intrepid leader) sold the glorious New Forest cycling weekend to me, he quite wisely left out the sheer amount of HILLS it entailed, and I won't embellish too much, but let's just say my mother would have been horrified to hear the language spurting from my mouth after roughly hour 6 and attempting the infamous Godshill.

I can honestly say however that the 5 months leading up to this have helped me get to know my friends even better and certainly love them even more than before. It has also given me a great passion for cycling and an even greater appreciation of the English countryside, albeit less of an appreciation for hail storms, Sandy Balls and the Ditchling Beacon (quoting Adam Sunday 'that hill is a DICK').

So this week we leave and we are doing it in aid of an incredible charity, Camp Mohawk. The work they do at this daycentre is really inspiring and vital to those children and families that attend, and we hope what we can raise for them will make even just a small difference in a child's life.