This September Simon Beckett, Chris Ireland and Martin Le Grice joined a group of cyclists led by Matt Downie, the Chief Executive of Crisis and cycled 495 miles from London to Edinburgh to raise money for the development of two new Crisis Skylight centres.

We did it!

All nine riders who set off from London completed the journey. We were joined at different stages by another 5 riders for 1 or 2 days.

Inevitably, over 6 1/2 days and 495 miles, there were ups and downs. The downs included going over the North York moors in a howling gale, torrential rain and a temperature drop from 18 degrees to 6 degrees…and having two bikes stolen overnight on day 4, including Simon’s.

The support team did a tremendous job hiring two bikes from a tiny shop in the highest village in the Pennines to allow the two riders to continue and complete the challenge.

The highlights were the camaraderie, finishing it and raising money for a very worthwhile cause.

The three of us thank you and really appreciate your support.

The work Crisis does to support homeless people throughout the Uk is extremely important and over 99% of their funding comes from corporate and personal donations. They help 10 000 people a year and are the national charity seeking to end homelessness in the UK.

Over 300,000 people in England are without a home, including almost 140,000 children, an increase of nearly 40,000 over 2023. That’s over 1 in every 200 people and in London it is around 1 in 50, which is staggering and unacceptable. In any one night over 3,000 people sleep on the streets.