What's it all about?


Hello Everybody!

Yes: 

My name is Alan Swinhoe, born in Sunderland, UK on 4th Jan 1963. For the mathematicians out there, I am therefore 55 years old, but only up and until the end of 3rd January 2019. For the non-mathematicians out there, I will then be 56 years old.

I have been and still am married to Ruth for around 28 years with 1 daughter and two grandsons. I have always wanted to retire as early as possible and did so on 1st July 2017, leaving SITA UK after 9½ years. Some people have suggested that it was actually on 9th October 2014 but do not listen to such blathering.

To help mark my retirement I thought I would do some sort of challenge combined with helping a worthwhile cause.

The challenge: 

Given my cycling hobby, I decided to cycle coast to coast USA (New York to San Francisco) from 22nd April 2018 to 20th July and end to end UK (Land's End to John O'Groats) from 14th August 2018 to 28th August. I will be cycling about 3,900 miles in the USA and around 900 miles in the UK, which for the non-mathematicians out there, is a total distance of 5,827.2 miles.

I will be sleeping in a tent or using warmshowers hosts (www.warmshowers.org) or the odd B&B/motel. I will be cycling solo as this will lead to fewer arguments, and I am funding the trip myself so all money raised will go directly to the chosen charity - see below.

The worthwhile cause:

Starlight brightens the lives of seriously and terminally ill children by granting wishes-of-a-lifetime and providing fun, laughter and entertainment to children in hospitals and hospices.

I picked Starlight for a number of reasons - they are very efficient, so more of the money we raise goes directly to help children; they have US and UK based organisations, so money raised in each geography will go the respective geographic organisation; they have a great 35 year history, Starlight has brought smiles to more than 60 million critically, chronically and terminally ill children and their families, in the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK; and most importantly, they directly help seriously ill children at a time of utmost need in their lives.

With your kind and generous help, I look forward to raising as much money as possible for Starlight USA and UK.

Websites:

UK: Starlight UK
US: Starlight USA

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