mark stretton
Mark's fundraiser for Licensed Trade Charity and Only A Pavement Away
Fundraising for Licensed Trade Charity
Story
I am taking on a massive challenge for two AMAZING charities: Only A Pavement Away and the Licensed Trade Charity. These two brilliant charities are needed now more than ever and do brilliant things to genuinely save, change and transform lives (more on them below).
So in a few weeks, alongside 30 other hardy souls, I will be riding 450kms over five days, across the high plains and hills of Kenya. The surfaces will be a mix of tarmac, rough road, dirt and trails. We'll spend a lot of time at altitude and so this will hard. Really hard, probably the toughest thing I have ever done.
In the build up, it means a lot of early mornings, to get out on the road and get the training done: to get the miles into my legs; the oxygen into my lungs; and to be completely frank, the very necessary hours into my 'saddle'...please think of my poor saddle.
Between the 30 of us, across individual efforts and group fundraisers, we're trying to raise a whopping £300k. If we do that it will mean that across the three years, these rides (this is the third overseas trek) will have raised an incredible £1million, which would be an amazing achievement.
We all know that we are very lucky to be able to have a crack at this challenge, and much more fortunate than the people our efforts will ultimately help, via the two charities we are raising funds for... who are some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Only A Pavement Away gives vulnerable people on the edges of society, and at risk of homelessness, a chance - a chance to lift themselves up through jobs and careers in hospitality.
The Licensed Trade Charity acts as a safety net for people suffering extremely difficult times, be it through unemployment, financial hardship or illness, including life-threatening diseases and mental health issues. It has been there for people for more than 230 years.
So please, if you can, help us to raise as much as possible for these two phenomenal charities, so that they can continue their extraordinary work.
The training continues... Please help us if you can - and know that any sum, big or small, will go towards saving and changing lives.
For more information about these two charities, follow these links:
