More than four thousand disabled people are dying every week from Covid-19. That’s almost two out of every three deaths! The strain on carers, families and on disabled people has never been greater.

Scope shops up and down the country have been closed for long periods this year, with our income falling by around £1.2 million a month during lockdown. This means that vital money for our support services for Britain's 14 million disabled people has been lost. I am therefore setting myself a challenge to raise as much of this lost money as possible, to help our vital work continue – and I’d love you to join in.

I became Chair of Scope UK in November and I want to kick start 2021 in the right way. I am 70 this year and last October I had major surgery involving organ removal after a serious illness. I then had an accident and am still undergoing therapy to regain mobility and strength.

My challenge is to ride from the most northern Scope shop in Hexham, 8 miles from the Scottish border, down to the Scope shop on the south coast in Dover, Kent – just over 650 virtual kilometres [407 virtual miles] – in a month. I’m totally blind plus I’m isolating so I’m doing this on my Schwinn exercise bike at home.