Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 

The time for my challenge is getting closer!! My target goal of £2000 can hopefully still be attained. Thanks so much for everyone who has donated to the cause todate. I am humbled!

Over the past 10 years my wife Debra and I have been continually travelling, visiting  wonderful places, living like a local, meeting wonderful people and enjoying the company of over 420 pets as we house sit for those who wish to travel and leave their pets in their own environment. A large percentage of those pets have been adopted from refuges and animal welfare organisations, be it Turkey, the UK, mainland Europe or Australia.  

I have harboured dreams of doing a 24 hour bike ride, for my own reasons, from central London to central Paris (300km) in 24 hours for a few years.  The challenge involves leaving Big Ben in London at 4pm one day and arriving in central Paris at the Eiffel Tower by 4pm the next day which involves 300km of cycling and 5 hours of ferry crossing.  I love challenges!

My dream was nearly realised in 2016.   I was well trained (at least I thought I did a good job of training myself) however had a nasty crash 7 days from starting my ride.  Now 3 years later I am ready again. My plan is to leave London on 8th September and arrive in Paris a day later. 

This year I am more prepared, older (66 at time of riding), organised and will be riding with my son Glenn who is making a special trip from Australia to share with me.  I am also riding for a reason other than just solely the personal gratification and challenge.  This time I wish to raise funds and awareness for the Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare near Lewes in southern England.

My involvement of being a registered house/petsitter with TrustedHousesitters.com has raised a close awareness of this very  significant and important animal welfare organisation in the UK. Raystede survive solely on donations to operate.  Deb and I visited the centre this month and we were amazed at the size, organisation, facilities and layout for animals (of any kind and size) that are in their care.  What also amazed us was the volume of visitors that are attracted to the centre.  

• parents with their children in tow
  
• people without children who just love to see animals
• Teens by themselves. 
• some coming to take home their next pet.  
• some coming to hand their pets to welfare  as their personal situations and abilities have changed but they still care.  
• people coming to get educational material and advice on how to manage/take care of pets.  

Just lots of people coming every day for many reasons.

This is an animal welfare centre not a tourist attraction, however the way it has been presented it is both in my opinion.   It’s like a zoo with things to do, animals to see and touch and talk to. I felt it’s like a place that some children see animals real close up for the first time. And I bet some go away having met their next pet.

I take it in my stride to ask for donations for this wonderful charity in recognition of my challenge. Any donations received will help the centre immensely and mean that they can continue to provide the welfare and care for those animals in need and in between one owner and the next.

Thank you.

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