On the 26th July we will taking on a cycling challenge and are aiming to complete 120 miles over two days. We will be leaving from Q3 Academy in Great Barr on the first day and riding 60 miles to Cheltenham. On day two we will leave from Cheltenham and ride another 60 miles to finish in Weston-super-Mare. There will be 16 men taking part in this challenge including me, my brother and fellow colleagues and teachers from work.

Drivers: Luke Price and James Webster

Riders: Matt Richardson, Josh Richardson, Ant Goodwin, Rob Burlace, Harry Steel, Perry Crawford, Matt Hard, Jacob McGeough, Andy Machin, Adam Turner, Sanjay Kumar, Alex McDowell, Mitch Hennings and Tom Davies.

We will be completing this ride in memory of my dad who we sadly lost to suicide last year and in order to raise awareness and support anyone that is suffering with mental health problems. 

A lot of us have very little knowledge about road cycling, but after purchasing second hand road bikes from Facebook marketplace, doing a little bit of training and falling off a fair few times we feel more than ready to take on the challenge. It will be a challenge for us all, I'm sure we will have many incidents along the way and maybe a few punctures, but i'm certain knowing why we are doing it will get us all through in the end (hopefully without any injuries). 

I think taking part in this challenge has been great for our own mental health and in particular me and my brother's with helping us deal with what happened to our dad. As you can see from the pictures it has brought us all together and has already given us some great memories. I think it is a wonderful thing what we have been able to create, we aim for it to continue even when the ride is complete and would highly recommend this to anyone else. 

Any donations would mean a lot to us. The support we have already received in trying to remember and honour our amazing dad has been overwhelming. The awareness that we have been able to raise and the support that we are able to provide to Birmingham Mind makes us very happy, so any further support would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you to everyone taking part in this ride it means a lot to me and my family and I know how much my dad would appreciate it as well.

Love you Dad x