Biking for Children in Care.

Up to October 2022, at the time of our AGM Biking for Children in Care had raised £942,863 for Become Charity (formerly the Who Cares? Trust). During 2023 and after another an amazingly successful long distance ride in Kent with 50 cyclists and 9 in support, we were within touching distance (we got to £982,000 on 30th June) of reaching a grand total of £1,000,000 raised for Become. In addition in April 2023 we raised £1200 for a community and refugee project in Ukraine. We have sent a total of £40,000 since 2005 for projects helping children abroad.

In August 2023 we crossed the line and have now raised £1,000,000 for Become. Charity since we started pedalling back in 2002.

The beginning and beyond.

Gill T and Peggy Griffiths met working as social workers and Children’s Guardians in Berkshire. We used to go on social work training course together. Peg suggested we join a National Deaf Children Society sponsored bike ride in Cuba…. Then we went on another NDCS sponsored ride in India in February 2000.

Gill went off on the NDCS London to Paris ride in September 2000. She met Bob Griffin (otherwise known as BobatHove)

In December 2000 Gill was biking round Richmond Park with her sister Pip on one of their regular outings – a Big Birthday was looming for Gill in February 2001 - “I know what we’ll do (she said) – we’ll organise our own bike ride and raise money for children in care…” and so that’s what led to the Land’s End to John O’Groats ride and to setting up Biking for Children in Care.

We found the small charity The Who Cares? Trust based in London was the best way to support children in care whose State ‘parents’ are any of the 112 local authorities around the UK.  The Who Cares? Trust was set up round a kitchen table by a social worker called Tory Laughland some 22 years ago. She started the Who Cares? magazines and the Trust works tirelessly to improve prospects for children in care. The magazines and now the website help children in care to communicate with and support each other and to appreciate that others are in the same boat. The Trust organises training and projects for care leavers, carers and social workers. Increasingly it lobbies government and now runs the All Party Parliamentary Group for young people and children in care.

It took us a year to plan the Land’s End to John O’Groats trip.

Those who did the whole trip were:
David Mitchell and Bob Griffin (they worked out the route and steered)
Maria Leonard (sorted the accommodation  - a thankless task)
Bob Hampson (brought up the rear and made sure we didn’t lose anyone - a wonderful man coping with exhaustion and deflation of sprit and tyres)
Nicki Calcott and  Peter Thornton (we had met on NDCS trips)
Gill Timmis and Dotty Revel (from Ayrshire!)

We were joined by:
Pete Tindale, Stephen Hampson and Henry Odd in Cornwall (very very hilly!)
John Hackett from Chester through the Lake District to Glasgow
Pip Deverson, Roma and Bruce Hooper, Stephen Tindale, James Hampson and Pete Saunders in Scotland
The support was John Tindale driving the support van (for most of it); Geoff Findlay, Peg and John Griffiths, Aileen Hampson and John Deverson

The ride covered 1105 miles (at the last official mileage count!), we left Land’s End on 23rd June 2002 and arrived at John O’Groats on 12th July. The route took in five ferries, several bridges including the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Severn Bridge and the Bridge of Ochy, lots of rain, many, many up hills, and some quite scarey downhill bits (maximum recorded speed 35 mph!). 14 nights in youth hostel bunk bedded dorms, 7 nights in B&Bs. 18 of us biked some or all of it, six came along as support drivers, bike mechanics and providers of essentials, and luxuries (wild salmon in Tongue feature amongst the latter). There were tunes on the fiddle and penny whistle and songs delivered on the bikes and off. We had a great time and we wondered what we could possibly do next……..!

We raised £32,000 from the ride!

 …Many supporters said they would like to do a bike ride but that Lands End to John O’Groats was too far and took too long….. so we did some thinking and came up with this for 2003…..

A 200 mile bike ride round the leafy lanes of Sussex and Kent over three sun-filled (maybe!) midsummer days on 27th, 28th and 29th June 2003.

And that led on to the long distance rides in 2004, 2005, 2006 and all the way to date.

Each year we ran training rides for anyone who wanted to come.

In December 2004 the Tsunami hit in the Pacific so we ran a day ride in March 2005 along the river from Windsor to Waterloo to raise funds for children caught up in the chaos.

In 2006 we ran what then became the ‘March Thames ride’ for children in Bulgaria because Gill had started working with DJ Crichton and Meggy Baljieva training judges and social workers in Children’s Rights.

Since 2007 the March ride has raised funds for the ‘Joining Up’ project (set up by Gill and Meggy) and for projects for vulnerable children and those without families in Ethiopia and Namibia.

Biking for Children in Care ltd is a private company limited by guarantee (No. 15450534)
Registered in England & Wales.

To join us or for more information about biking for children in care please contact Gill Timmis. Email: gill_timmis@outlook.com

If you would like to sponsor our ride you can visit;
https://becomecharity.org.uk/support-our-work/biking-for-children-in-care