A freelance shepherd from the Scottish Borders will cycle the entire Scottish coast this summer to raise money for Christian Aid.

Arthur Cross, 50, from Kelso, will cycle an average of 90 miles a day to complete the 1300-mile ride in a fortnight, travelling clockwise from in the southwest to Berwick–upon-Tweed in the Southeast.

Starting on 1 July, Arthur and his friend Ian King, a teacher from Yetholm, will stop at various towns and villages en route to raise awareness of Christian Aid’s climate change work. The pair will met local Christian Aid groups but also hope to meet a new audience and to raise £5,000 for Christian Aid partners in .

The money will go to two partners in a match-funded partnership scheme, ‘Office de Developpement des Eglises Evangeliques’ (ODE), and ‘Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe’ (HELP). Every pound raised by Christian Aid will be matched by another four pounds from the European Commission. Arthur and Ian therefore hope to generate £20,000 towards the partners’ work, which aims to reduce chronic poverty and hunger for nearly 1 million people by adapting the environment to grow more crops.  

‘The whole thing is very appealing,’ said Arthur. ‘I’m looking forward to going up to the Western Isles, meeting people and helping them to get an understanding of what we are doing. I want to get across just how difficult it is for people living in places like and what a big difference a small amount of money can make.’

Arthur, also works as mental health support worker for the Scottish Association for Mental Health, has cycled on and off throughout his life but only discovered the joys of road cycling as he got older. His co-cyclist Ian cycles nine miles to and from his school each day.

The pair have undertaken two previous fundraising cycle rides, one through cities in the Central Belt and one tracing the shape of the AIDS ribbon through . Each ride raised £3000 that was split between Christian Aid and the Scottish Borders Africa Aids Group. The scale of the 2010 challenge encouraged them to work closely with Christian Aid and make the most of the charity’s close local links throughout rural Scotland

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