On 25th June I am cycling 100km to raise funds for Brighton Housing Trust's First Base Day Centre. Many years ago it would have been a doddle, but I am now an unfit, late fifties desk jockey. To be honest, I am terrified. I have recently bought a bike and have started training. My legs hurt, but more to the point, my bum hurts. Why do they make saddles so narrow these days?

I am now writing to ask you to sponsor me. Do so either out of pity (I am not proud) or because First Base Day Centre provides such important life saving and life sustaining services for people who are sleeping on the streets of Brighton and Hove. It is so wrong that in one of the richest cities in one of the richest countries in the world, almost 150 people sleep each night on the streets.

First Base does more than provide food and hot drinks, showers and dry clothes. It helps people to overcome those issues that have taken them on the streets in the first place. Last year First Base was open for 288 days and helped 305 people to move off the streets.
So please, please sponsor me