Charities
Epilepsy is the UK’s most common serious neurological condition affecting an estimated 1 in 131 people. Epilepsy Action helps over 550,000, people every year through its range of services including its advice and information centre, branch network and accredited volunteer scheme. The organisation’s award-winning website, www.epilepsy.org.uk, receives over 100,000 visitors a month. The Epilepsy Helpline on freephone 0808 800 5050 is available Monday-Friday, 9.00 am - 4.30 pm (4.00 pm on Fridays). Over 90% of its income is in the form of voluntary contributions and our vital work would simply not be possible without the kind support of people such as yourself. Thank you.
We provide respite and terminal care for life limited children
The Palliative Care East appeal supports the development of a palliative care centre on the grounds of the main hospital which will cost £1.5m. The centre will be an outpatient, visitor and family support centre for patients and families with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
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Land's End to John O'Groats 2010
The Idea
"Like all of life's best ideas, this one came up in the pub after a couple of Saturday afternoon shandies.
A trip up to Manchester to visit Gerald in mid-January very nearly didn't happen. The weather had been at it's snowy best throughout the start of the year and the thaw had only begun a couple of days earlier. So once the AA had sorted out my flat battery, I motored on up to Chorlton-****-Hardy.
The Marble Beer House, Chorlton provided us with a suitable venue to chill out on this cool Saturday afternoon with good company and Jeff Stelling & co on the telly in the background. I'm slightly hazy on how we got onto this topic, but I suspect it was something to do with challenges for the new year and looking to do something new. I had run the Leamington 10k in 2009 with Ray which was actually quite good fun but I'd got nothing lined up for 2010. Jeavons outlined his plans to run the Manchester 10k in May 2010 to which I believe I said I'd take part in (but later reneged on). I wanted to do something very different and much more ambitious. More so than simply running say a marathon.
The mind-altering properties of the Marble Ginger Beer encouraged me to suggest cycling Lands' End to John O'Groats (LEJOG) - one of UK cycling's greatest journeys. It was something I had looked into 10 years ago not long after I had just started University but nothing ever came out of it - other than my copy of 'Cycling Britain'. I've always been pretty keen on cycling - though largely as a spectator.
The suggestion seemed to go down pretty well with Jeavons, and a subsequent text to Ray had a very committed response. So that was that!
Nothing more was said about it for a little while. Things went quiet as we were all busy with work / holidays / life in general etc. Reflecting on it later in a state of sobriety I wasn't so convinced that we would actually go through with it - given the amount of prep and training that would no doubt be required for such an epic adventure..
As we approached the end of March a couple of e-mails between us discussed whether we were actually going to do this. We were all keen on doing it, but did discuss whether we ought to aim at doing it in 2011 to give us a little more preparation time. But my feeling was that if we were ever going to do it - then it ought to be now. It gets more difficult to find the time to do something as ambitious as this, and so now was a good a time as any.
I knew that once we had bought our new bikes there was no going back........"
- Kumaran Navaratnarajah, aka Nav, aka Goose, aka Captain Slow
The small print
OK we'll admit it. The main reason we are doing this trip is for the personal challenge of raising our fitness levels while having a tour of the country. But a challenge it is, and we would equally like to raise some money for our chosen charities.
The big print
So there you have it. You can track the trip, before, during and after, at www.raypang.com. Any donations you can spare, however small or large, will be greatly appreciated by ourselves and, most importantly, our chosen charities and the people they help.
Recent donors
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Anonymous £635.00 (+ £179.10 giftaid) 10.10.10 Well done all |
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Rich £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 08.09.10 Well done mate |
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Andy. £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 06.09.10 sorry it's late! well done!! |
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Steve T £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 23.08.10 Well done guys, respect due... |
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MPT team £300.00 (+ £84.62 giftaid) 16.08.10 Well done from MPT |
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Mrs K and friends £685.00 (+ £193.21 giftaid) 16.08.10 Well done all |
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Poolo £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 16.08.10 |
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Ilangini £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 15.08.10 |
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Paul / Clive £50.00 04.08.10 well done from PC Eng |
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John Strevens £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 29.07.10 Great achievement Ray |
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Anonymous £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 29.07.10 |
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Chloe & Stuart Laing £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 27.07.10 Well one Ray |
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Mike Dean £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 25.07.10 Well done gents, very good effort. |
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Mrs Nav £225.00 (+ £63.46 giftaid) 25.07.10 Best wishes from Ravenhurst |
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Paul Mac £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 24.07.10 |
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Paul Wyre £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 24.07.10 |
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Claire Foster £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 24.07.10 Well done Ray & friends!!! |
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Hugh £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 23.07.10 Fantastic effort! |
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Phil Maher £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 22.07.10 Well done. Looks like quite ana dventure! |
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Peter Fox £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 22.07.10 Well done |
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Lande Adejumo £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 22.07.10 Well Done Ray and team |
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Tony Bennett £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 22.07.10 Well done - not something I could have done. |
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Chris P £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 21.07.10 Well done. Any of you up for a "Diagonale"? |
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Geoff W £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 21.07.10 |
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Rob F £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 21.07.10 |
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John Hayes £15.00 (+ £4.23 giftaid) 21.07.10 Great effort |
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Anonymous £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 21.07.10 |
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Mohan Govindaswamy £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 20.07.10 Brilliant !!!!!!! tan line .. keep it up |
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Anonymous £20.00 20.07.10 Hi Ray, Glad to see that you are working for a good cause. I'm so much inspired with your work and glad that you made it. Cheers, Tony Fernando |
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Suhal £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 20.07.10 Well Done Ray and Team |
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Bastian £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 20.07.10 |
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Dawn B £5.00 (+ £1.41 giftaid) 20.07.10 |
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Kofi £15.00 (+ £4.23 giftaid) 20.07.10 Well done lads |
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Anonymous £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 19.07.10 |
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Frances and Dom £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 18.07.10 Well done team! |
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Vimal £25.00 (+ £7.05 giftaid) 17.07.10 Well done guys. Good effort for a good cause. Keep it up. |
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Matt & Sian £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 15.07.10 Amazing Effort!! |
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Ian Osborne £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 14.07.10 Well done on progress so far! |
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Lawrence Tyler £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 13.07.10 Nav, you're from Birmingham. That's quite a trek, wish I was able to cycle that far. Well done, the progress is excellent! |
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Lawrence Tyler £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 13.07.10 Ray, you're a bigger man than me. That's quite a trek, wish I was able to cycle that far. Well done, the progress is excellent! |
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Lawrence Tyler £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 13.07.10 Gerald, you're a bigger man than me. That's quite a trek, wish I was able to cycle that far. Well done, the progress is excellent! |
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Aunty Mani £30.00 (+ £8.46 giftaid) 12.07.10 Well done, Keep up the good will. |
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Rob Smith £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 09.07.10 Nice work guys! |
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Chris & Victoria £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 08.07.10 Keep on going and see you tonight. |
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Chris Garnham £10.00 (+ £2.82 giftaid) 06.07.10 Keep going gents! Was thinking you could avoid these 9pm finishes if you started setting off in the morning? Just an idea! |
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Auntie Rosemary and Rebecca £20.00 (+ £5.64 giftaid) 05.07.10 Good Luck Gerald! Love Auntie Rosemary and Rebecca xxx |
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Priya and Jay £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 04.07.10 Fantastic effort. Hope all goes well. |
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Thaya £30.00 (+ £8.46 giftaid) 03.07.10 Good luck and best wishes |
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Lynda Saunders £50.00 (+ £14.10 giftaid) 03.07.10 Well done all three. Something for you to remember all your lives. |
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Polly & David £100.00 (+ £28.21 giftaid) 02.07.10 Good luck! |
