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Wednesday 17 June 2009
It is not too late to make a donation to the British Heart Foundation! The Be Number 1 LEJOG cycling team arrived in John O’Groats on Monday evening after a nine-day journey from Land’s End, but there is still plenty of time to offer your message of support on the Be Number 1 LEJOG home page and make your donation, however large or small it may be.
And keep an eye out for an online auction that will feature between 10 and 15 items, the proceeds from which will be added to the fund. The auction will be coming your way soon!
“We are extremely grateful to all those people – and dogs! - who have so far contributed to the fund,” said Hugo Ambrose, the creator of Be Number 1 and a member of the cycling team that rode the 853 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
“We have created an excellent association with the British Heart Foundation and we are certain that the amount of money donated will continue to rise. We are also extremely grateful to the British Heart Foundation, who played their part to the full in the schools that we visited and who worked very hard for us, and indeed with us.”
The dogs to which Ambrose is referring are Derek, who belongs to Sarah Webb and Adam Gosling, and Ringo, who is owned by Sarah Ayton and Nick Dempsey. The two dogs made the LEJOG trip, too, even if most of it was spent in the comfort of the camper van driven by Gosling and Ayton. “Seems a long way to us” was the dogs’ message of support!
Among others to donate was Emma John, the deputy editor of Observer Sports Monthly, who wrote: “I know I’m not Chris Hoy...but I’m very impressed.” To which Hoy, the cyclist who last year became the first Briton to win three gold medals at a single Olympics for 100 years, responded almost immediately with a donation and his own message of support: “Well, I am Chris Hoy and I am very impressed!! Good luck everyone and don’t forget to shave your legs, guys.”
Among the legion of other people who have so far generously donated, ‘Goose’ posted the following words: “Sarah W – count me in for a further £50 if you arrive without a sore bum.” Well, Goose, we can happily relay to you that Sarah W (Sarah Webb) reached John O’Groats with her bum intact, so you are being counted in for another 50 smackers.
There was also much goodwill among the sailing fraternity. Julien Bontemps, the French windsurfer who won a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics last year and a good friend of Dempsey’s, made a donation to demonstrate that Entente Cordiale really does still exist – well, in some corners of France, at least. There were donations, too, from two-time Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy, and from Christina Bassadone, another British sailing Olympian.
Jason Gill, the disabled hand cyclist and a member of the Be Number 1 LEJOG team, was desperately disappointed not to finish the route, but that did not stop him making a generous donation after his retirement from the event. Gill wrote: “Sorry I couldn’t complete it with you – good luck on the rest of the journey.”
Jason, no apologies required. Yours was a simply heroic effort.
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