So Basically, if you know Me (Matt Armitage) and Andy Hargreaves you will be very pleased to here, that in the name of WaterAid, we are putting ourselves through living hell on the weekend of the 7th September to cycle the coast to coast route from Walney (Barrow-in-furness) through the notoriously flat mountains of the lake district, then just for a breather we will be ascending the 11 mile climb into the dales via Tan Hill (home to the highest pub in England......wonder why we are going that way?) and finally finishing off in Whitby on the Sunday, where hopefully the doctors work weekends.

Myself and Andy have been training vigorously for this event until disaster struck on the eve of our practice marathon (Leeds-Liverpool in a day, 123miles) I injured my knee and have been out of training for 6 weeks.... convenient you may think, not when you live in a 3 story house and spent a month going up one stair at a time! But this will make it all the more painful for me and all the more enjoyable for you, so get donating!

Those of you who don't know Andy, his background is BMXing......yes, he really should grow up! Seriously though, Andy is an awesome biker, but even he has realised that to complete this challenge he will require more then one gear. He has turned his back on the flips and donned bicycle clips (see what i did there...) for this grueling test of endurance..... we have even manged to get a cycle helmet that will fit on top of his perm!

 

Many of you will know of WaterAid's work and hopefully that is why you are here,(if not click here) to support a charity that has always been close to my heart but really stole it in February of this year.

2000 children die every day from water related illnesses

I was lucky enough to visit Zambia with WaterAid to see their great work in action, and i befriended a man ,Chamunya, who i promised to help in his quest for a better life for his wife, Prisca, and his 5 children, a life where there only option of water is to drink from a stream which pigs defecate in, a life where there are no facilities to clean after going to the toilet resulting in stomach illnesses every week.

Over half of all hospital beds in the developing world are occupied by people with water related illnesses, most as simple as diarrhea

This life can easily be improved with the simple addition of clean, safe drinking water and sanitation facilities,. We are not talking thousands of pounds here :-

Just £15 is enough to provide water and sanitation for my friend for a lifetime

£100 would bring his whole family out of this heartbreaking situation

So we are doing this challenge to raise money for WaterAid to help thousands of people out of having no choice but to give their family water they know could kill them, but I'm doing this because i promised my friends Chamunya and Prisca that i would help them. that will be why they will be riding on my handlebars and helping me through all the way..........

 

........Not literally of cause, its hard enough!

 

Many thanks for your time and donations

 

Matt and Andy