Hello! We're Georgie and David and, between us, we'll be cycling the whole Guinness World Record-breaking Spell It Out route. That's over 2,400km and more than 3 times the height of Everest in hill climbing - yikes!
💚 WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? 💚 The British government is trying to make it almost impossible for refugees to claim asylum in the UK.
Home Secretary Priti Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill is putting the UK in direct opposition to the 1951 Geneva Convention by shutting down even more legal routes to asylum in this country. Incredibly, it will also criminalise the courageous, life-saving work of the RNLI.
That's why we're getting back on our bikes, cycling really really far and fundraising for grassroots organisations that offer refugees the welcome that our government withholds.
🚴 GEORGIE (26, Glasgow) 🚴 I have been a keen bean cyclist since I was 19 and found myself cycling the length of America, sort of by accident! Since then I have explored much of Scotland, Wales and New Zealand with my trusty Raleigh Capri (called ‘Sunny’).
I first got involved volunteering with refugee and asylum seeker communities while studying Arabic in Jordan in 2016, at the height of the crisis. I learned one heck of a lot about what it meant to be a 'refugee', what people had to give up and why people were forced to flee.
I now work with refugee and asylum seeker communities in Glasgow and it seems that people's journeys are being made ever more difficult by governments here in the UK and in Europe.
Spell It Out is an incredible challenge that I am so privileged to be a part of. We are both really looking forward to getting on the road, and rallying as much support as possible for Choose Love!
🚴 DAVID (39, Bournemouth) 🚴 I've been going on ridiculously long bike rides for ten years now, including two stints on the London to Athens relay with Thighs of Steel.
For me, bikes are the ultimate freedom machine, carrying me across continents, powered by nothing more than a croissant (or seven). I have also seen the transformational potential of bikes when put into the hands of refugees and asylum seekers, both here in the UK and in places like Calais, Athens, Chios and Samos.
Bikes give us both independence and community and I'm proud to use mine in solidarity with those fleeing persecution, conflict and torture.
I've been so lucky that I've been able to travel freely around the world, thanks only to the freak chance of being born in a politically stable, wealthy country. The sheer injustice that some human beings aren't allowed to cross borders makes me furious and anger is an energy, right? I hope so, because I've got an awful lot of cycling to do!
We are far from powerless. Please donate generously, make a noise and show the world that refugees are always welcome here.
Thank you!
Latest 06 December 2021
Final Fundraising Total: £81,428!
We've just heard that Thighs of Steel cyclists have raised a total of £81,428 for Choose Love in 2021. So here's one final big THANK YOU for your generous donations! …
We've just heard that Thighs of Steel cyclists have raised a total of £81,428 for Choose Love in 2021.
So here's one final big THANK YOU for your generous donations!
Choose Love has now granted that money to seven grassroots organisations that work for refugees and asylum seekers in both the UK and on the borders of Europe.
In London, for example, your donations have paid the entire salary of a part-time administrator for Salusbury World to help more young refugees and their families access services including housing support, English classes and after school clubs.
Over in Greece, your donations will help support three organisations that work for a more just asylum system, not only in individual cases, but also for everyone through 'impact litigation' at the European courts.
You can read more about these organisations and how your donations are having a real impact on the lives of refugees over on our website: https://www.thighsofsteel.com/reason.html
Big thanks, big hug, big love, Georgie and David
Updates
06 December 2021
Final Fundraising Total: £81,428!
We've just heard that Thighs of Steel cyclists have raised a total of £81,428 for Choose Love in 2021.
So here's one final big THANK YOU for your generous donations!
Choose Love has now granted that money to seven grassroots organisations that work for refugees and asylum seekers in both the UK and on the borders of Europe.
In London, for example, your donations have paid the entire salary of a part-time administrator for Salusbury World to help more young refugees and their families access services including housing support, English classes and after school clubs.
Over in Greece, your donations will help support three organisations that work for a more just asylum system, not only in individual cases, but also for everyone through 'impact litigation' at the European courts.
You can read more about these organisations and how your donations are having a real impact on the lives of refugees over on our website: https://www.thighsofsteel.com/reason.html
Big thanks, big hug, big love, Georgie and David
22 September 2021
WE DID IT!
🗓️ 27 days 🧑🤝🧑 63 cyclists 🚴 2,209km riding ⛰️ 3 Everests of elevation (27,046m)
And so far... more than £56,000 raised for Choose Love. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
The supported Welcome rides of the last two weeks were an adventurous mess of steeliness and positivity. Huge thanks go to all the lovely humans who joined us and cycled their massive hearts out.
To be honest, we were both pretty anxious about the final ‘e’ - not only because it was the biggest day’s ride of the whole month (140km), but also because of the logistical challenges involved in completing a Guinness World Record.
We had to film at least 10 minutes of cycling footage, as well as finding people to sign our logbook throughout the day, and meeting two independent witnesses to verify the completion of the world record attempt in Dover.
We needn’t have worried though - the positivity of the 30-strong group of cyclists kept us going (and going) over the huge distance and the Kentish hills and through the unexpected heat. Plus we only had one puncture!
The people of Kent were fantastically generous to us, especially at the start point in Wye and at the finish line in Dover, where we were welcomed onto the beach by a group from Migrant Help, including a family of refugees recently arrived from Syria.
It was a really meaningful conclusion to a month of hard cycling.
Conclusion? Well, kinda.
Actually, the end of the challenge is peak time for donations (thanks again!) and for media coverage. Our week has been full of interviews that we hope will bring the cause to the attention of many more people - in fact, we just popped up on the BBC News website!
Thank you again for your support and, if you haven't already (and maybe even if you have), please give the challenge one final share around your networks. Every time you post, someone donates and more refugees are welcomed in the UK and beyond.
Big love, G&D
04 September 2021
As Bon Jovi once sang, 'We're halfway there!'
After 17 days and 1,200km of hard riding, we've finished writing out 'Refugees' with our bikes. Woohoo! Even better, we've raised more than £40,000 for Choose Love.
That's a really significant sum of money and we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far. Your donations will make a big difference to the grassroots refugee projects that Choose Love support.
You can help us make the most of this moment by sharing the Thighs story and fundraiser with all your friends, family and bigwigs in the local and national media! We were featured on Road.cc and Kent Online the other day. Sharing really does make good things happen :)
In many ways, the cycling is the easy bit. Don't get me wrong: riding big distances every day isn't a champagne and caviar picnic and we've both struggled with excruciating knee pain at various points. But the unfolding situation in Afghanistan has been very much on our minds and in our hearts.
It's been really heartening to discover that most people on the streets of Britain not only know what's going on in Afghanistan, but also wish our government was doing more to help. Seeing so many people back up their compassion with hard cash is what makes this bike ride worthwhile.
We also want to say thank you to all our incredibly generous hosts (too many to mention!) and to all the other cyclists who have joined us on the ride so far: Naomi, Ed, Mark, Mary and Innes. You are wonderful.
On Sunday (tomorrow!) we begin the 'Welcome' letters and are unspeakably excited to meet the 40+ cyclists who will be riding with us over the next couple of weeks.
In fact, there's still time for you (and anyone!) to sign up to ride any of the letters: just head over to thighsofsteel.com/worldrecord
Something alchemical happens when a bunch of Steely Thighed cyclists hit the road. Just as thousands of rotations of the pedals add up to an epic bike ride of record-breaking proportions, so too do thousands of donations add up to hugely significant support for people hit hard by the merciless wheels of history.
Keep on doing your thing. Thanks!
Big love, Georgie and David
22 August 2021
R & E finished!
Four days in and we've finished the R and the E with over 6400m of Cornish and Devonshire hills! That's not far off an Everest!
Thank you SO MUCH for all your wonderful donations. We've been blown away by the response and hit our £1000 target yesterday. Woohoo! We have decided to stretch out fundraising target to £1364 - roughly the number of kilometres we'll do while spelling out 'Refugees'.
Your generosity has been at the forefront of our minds as we power up / creak up yet another 20% incline. :))
Thanks as well to those of you who have been sharing the ride - the more people who hear about it, the bigger voice we all have. Nice one!
Today we're heading to Barnstaple on the second part of the F and looking forward to more hills, more flapjacks and more incredible people choosing love.
Only another 23 days and 2000-odd kilometres to go!
