As some of you will know, Ben Wickham, a very close friend of mine from school days passed away last year after a short illness. He left behind a wife and two young boys, my God children.

Ben's sister Lorna has arranged a cycling event to commemorate him and to raise money in his name. Myself and some others will be attempting this challenge in June this year.

Stupidly I agreed before checking the route, which starts on the French Atlantic coast and finishes on the Mediterranean. We are taking the shortest route across the Pyrenees which contains mountains to cycle up…

To give you some statistics, 'Biking for Ben' will cover just over 650km over 6 days whilst climbing vertically a total of 10km. All of the Cols (Mountains!) we will climb have featured in the Tour de France including the very famous Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aubisque and Col d’ Aspin, the three most used Cols in the 100 year history of the race.

Biking for Ben will start on Sunday 22nd June 2014 just outside Biarritz on the West coast of France and finish on Friday 27th June, just past Perpignan on the East Coast.

Why am I telling you all of this? Frankly because we want to raise as much money as possible to add to the donations made in Ben's memory last year. Our chosen charity is "Winston's Wish" (http://www.winstonswish.org.uk/), the leading childhood bereavement charity in the UK. Winston's Wish offers practical support and guidance to bereaved children, their families and professionals. They are a small charity which means your donations have a much bigger impact.

Many of you have been very generous in the past donating to charity rides etc, but I think it's fair to say that this is in a slightly different league! As such, if you can dig deep, your sponsorship once more would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.