Farming bosses get on their bikes to help end hunger
13 June 2014
Two of the most senior figures in British and world farming will be setting off on a 1,000 mile charity bike ride on 16 June to raise money for Farm Africa and three other UK based farming charities.
Peter Kendall, who has just stepped down after eight years as President of the National Farmers Union (NFU), will be joined by Richard Whitlock, Chairman of the annual Oxford Farming Conference. They will be stopping off at every NFU regional office as part of the challenge. Setting off from Skelmersdale in Lancashire and heading for Yorkshire before heading south through Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire and beyond. Ten days and 1,049 miles later, the pair will complete their challenge at the NFU’s national headquarters in Kenilworth, Warwickshire on the 27th of June.
This epic journey would be daunting enough for any experienced cyclist, but Peter Kendall has owned a bike for only four months and admits that this is a mad challenge. Despite his reservations, Peter said “The thing that will keep me going over those tough Pennine hills however, is the fact that this is all for charity. I am really up for this challenge and hope people will give as much as they can to help the four extremely worthwhile causes we are supporting.”
Farm Africa is the only international charity supported by the NFU and Peter Kendall’s eight years as NFU President witnessed a remarkable scaling up of support for Farm Africa and our work. In 2008 the NFU launched its Africa 100 Appeal to celebrate the centenary of the NFU. The appeal raised over £200,000.
Richard Whitlock is looking forward to seeing the countryside and getting fit at the same time as raising money for four agricultural charities. He said “There are always people worse off than we are and it’s good to have the pain of a 1,000 mile cycle ride to help ease the pain for those who are not so fortunate. These four charities make a real ‘in the field’ difference to people’s lives in our industry.”
Farm Africa would like to thank Peter and Richard for taking on this tough challenge to raise money for us and we’ll be following their progress closely on their blog which you can read here.
Further details about their route can be found on the NFU Farm Cycle Challenge page here and donations can be made on their Virgin money giving page.
