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As I’ve probably mentioned to a lot of you already, Soph and I, along with some friends of ours, are planning to ride the South Downs way this weekend. The South Downs way is around 100 miles long from Eastbourne to Winchester and we plan to cycle it in two days, in order to raise some money for the charity project of a good friend of ours.

The idea to do this came a couple of months ago after we watched a promotional video produced by our friend, Dave Attwood, for a charity project that he has recently spent a great deal of time setting up. Dave is a doctor working on the Isle of Wight; he spent a few months last year working in a hospital in Malawi and was drawn to Africa and it’s people, whilst being increasingly concerned with it’s plight. As a result he decided that he would like to use his time, skills and enthusiasm to do something to help. After speaking to a colleague of his in the Isle of Wight, who is originally from Africa, a plan was formed to try to help one of the parts of the country that is struggling the most, Sudan. The plan being to establish a training hospital in a town called Juba in Southern Sudan. Dave went about gaining support for the project, including the twinning of the hospital in Juba with the hospital he is currently working in on the Isle of Wight. Dave and some colleagues recently visited the Juba hospital and he plans to return to Juba for around four Months starting this August.

Dave’s enthusiasm, generosity and big ideas have always been a source of inspiration to me and in light of the huge amount of time and effort that Dave has dedicated to this project, I thought the least I could do was try not to kill myself riding a very long way off-road in a short period of time on my BMX.

Any money that you are willing to donate would be greatly appreciated. Cheques can be made payable to ‘St Mary’s Hospital – Juba Link’ and more information about the project can be found here.

Thanks very much,