Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My Story

I have updated my page as I am now completing my challenge in one direction only - the right way! I originally set out to go both ways as a challenge to basically push me to the extremes of my mental and physical strength but after being on the road for coming up for five months I am actually starting to be in a place where I no longer need to punish myself anymore for the crime against me! Physically I could most likely do the return journey, but mentally, it would kill me. I trust you will see the benefits of what I am doing to raise awareness and as I say below every donation big or small makes one big difference.

I’m currently in Cordoba in Argentina and hope to finish in the next two to three weeks.

Take care and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

My name is Tim and I am a survivor of child abuse.  Back in 2017 I made a desperate call to the Samaritans as I was at the end of tether again and just wanted to finish it all, a trait that has haunted me most of my life.  This call then led me to making that most difficult of decisions and that was to report a violent crime that was committed against me when I was a child and in front of my little brother Mark.  That crime was rape!

It took me 38 years to pluck up the courage to make the call to the police to start the ball rolling, with my video evidence being given on the 7th of December 2017 and exactly three years later after much denying of events the perpetrator pleaded guilty on all counts and he was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on the 7th of December 2020 for his crimes against me and another young boy called Paul Barnes, who had come forward in June of 2020.  The man later died in prison in February 2021 as a guilty man!  Justice was full and final!!!

The implications of such a crime is quite frankly horrendous, stressful and life debilitating which culminated in my attempted suicide in June 2020, which thankfully I did not succeed.  However, the affects of PTSD are ongoing and I am working through those with the help of a great and kind man called Niall Crawley Moore.

On the day of the court sentencing I chose to read out my victim impact statement which meant walking past the deviant man to the witness box, and that is by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life and none of my other bike rides come anywhere close to it.  I was accompanied by two close friends, Phil & Flo without whom I would not have coped at all and for which I will be forever grateful.

The Challenge!

So, with such a big trauma in my life warrants a big challenge, and one which will test every ounce of my physical and mental stamina.  

I am going to cycle the entire length of the Pan American Highway from Prudhoe Bay to Ushuaia, all 14000 miles of it and then turn around and go back again! Totalling 28000 miles on the bike.

I will be unsupported and riding every day until I am done, with the  exception of the connecting flights between Panama City and Cartagena in Colombia.  I have a daily mileage I want to achieve but I am keeping that quiet for now and we will see how it goes but I will say that I want this ride done and dusted in 8 to 10 months. 

I will be sleeping in campsites as much as possible and a lot of the time I will be in the middle of nowhere, from the wilds of Alaska to the vastness of the Atacama Desert. From riding at sea level to the high plains of Bolivia at altitudes of 5000m.

I have had a bike specially made for the ride and I plan to ride the f**k out of it to!!

This for me is the ultimate challenge to clear my head of what is now 43 years of living with PTSD and the consequences of rape and to prove what you can do as a survivor and not a victim, after all life is short and I want to use what I have left to mean something and to hopefully make a difference to others.  I have sold a lot of things to make this trip happen and I would be enormously grateful for any donation to my chosen charity, big or small, as every bit helps and every act of kindness means so much.

In Conclusion

I fly out to Alaska on the 25th of July and plan to start riding on the 1st of August and you can follow me on Strava which is a free app and has great privacy setting for those who may be concerned and I will be logging all of my rides with commentary and photographs as and when I can.  Just go onto Strava and search for Tim Pickett from Trelan and look for the man with long hair!

I hope you can join me and thank you again for taking the time to read my story.

Very best wishes to you 

Tim Pickett

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.