About this campaign

This past weekend (well, on Saturday 17th July to be precise!) Incredibly last minute and absurdly ill prepared, some friends and I set off to cycle from the South Coast of Cornwall at Fowey, all the way up to Tintagel on the North Coast where, dispiritingly, we immediately turned around and headed back down South past Launceston, Liskeard and across Bodmin Moor hoping to finish a gruelling day back on the South Coast of Cornwall at ‘Seaton Sands’, 5 miles East of Looe. All in all, over 11.5hrs of gruelling cycling on the hottest day of the year so far we covered 143km and climbed 2992 meters. It was phenomenally hot and we were sunburnt, dripping in sweat and utterly exhausted by the end. It was an utterly foolhardy endeavour BUT we were motivated by the most important of causes…

Every year the always inspirational ‘Things Of Steel’ team organise a massive bike ride from London to Athens to raise money for grassroots refugee projects. This year such a mammoth cross-border undertaking was obviously impossible and so, in it’s place, they came up with the fantastic idea of trying to create the world's largest GPS bike art, spelling out the words ‘REFUGEES WELCOME' across the South Coast of England. We were cycling the first letter of the Spell It Out Campaign. A large Cornish ‘R’.

We’re acutely aware how incredibly lucky we’ve all been in the lottery of birth unlike so many millions of refugees fleeing terror and persecution with no home, no passport & no vaccine. When the going got tough and we were faced with yet another bloody steep hill and as the sun continued to beat down upon our backs we just had to remember how insubstantial that challenge was in comparison to what the monumental struggle those people face everyday in search of a better life... That’s why we decided to get on out bikes to try and raise money for ‘Help Refugees’.

For those who might not know... 'Help Refugees' supports grassroots organisations and projects across the UK and the rest of Europe – providing humanitarian assistance and dignity to people who have been forced to flee war and persecution. We’d all be incredibly grateful if you could spare a couple of quid for this, most worthy of causes! Every penny donated will go directly to Choose Love/Help Refugees.

Even just the price of a pint or coffee would be magic, it all helps

Thank you for your support! X