I’m fundraising for the Gaza Sunbirds through The Big Ride for Palestine, to support the Gaza Sunbirds, a cycling team from Gaza, and help send them to the Paralympics in 2024!

The Big Ride for Palestine is an annual charity bike ride, that uses cycling as a mechanism to inform people and show solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. This year, alongside our ongoing annual support for the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), we're also teaming up with the Amos Trust to support an incredible cause. We would like to send a cycling team from Gaza to the Paralympics in France in 2024. By becoming backers of the Gaza Sunbird team, you can help us get this project off to a flying start.

The original Gaza Sunbird, Alaa al-Dali, was an Olympic hopeful cyclist when his leg was shot to pieces by an Israeli sniper on 30 March 2018. He was standing alone in his cycling gear, with his bike, as he watched a March of Return demonstration, 250 metres from the separation fence east of Rafah.

“The bullet [was] like a small grenade. It almost disintegrated the bone of my leg, 22cm of it. The muscle, arteries and veins were totally damaged. The doctor said he has never seen anything like it,” Alaa says, “I needed to make a choice; either the amputation or losing my life. After thinking a lot, I gave my consent to cut the leg. It was a very hard decision to make.” Quote taken from an Al Jazeera article.

Read more about Alaa al-Dali and the Gaza Sunbird team here. www.amostrust.org/palestine-justice/ahlan-gaza/gaza-sunbirds/