Burnham-On-Sea resident Rob Newton-Allen has been inspired by 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore to raise funds for charity by cycling 100 return trips from Burnham to Brean Down during his lockdown exercise periods.
Rob will begin his fundraising cycling challenge on Thursday (April 30th) on Captain Tom’s 100th birthday to raise funds for mental health support charity MIND.
He explained to Burnham-On-Sea.com that he has “been totally inspired by Capt. Tom Moore,” the WW2 veteran who has raised £29.3 million for an NHS charity.
“I have set out to do a similar 100 laps to raise some much-needed support for my chosen charity,” says Rob.
“My laps will consist of a 12 mile round trip from my home in Burnham to the tip of Brean Down and back again.”
“All in all it will probably be over 1,200 miles once finished. This should take me around two months to complete and I will endeavour to do at least one ‘lap’ per day.”
“I will use my one hour’s allocated exercise time to good effect until this lockdown is over. I will then go as often as possible again at least once a day until complete.”
He adds: “I am using a STRAVA app to log all the trips and these will be uploaded to my Justgiving page each day that I complete a circuit.”
“I will also take a single photo of the Down or on the Down and upload them. These will all be date and time stamped to provide evidence of every single trip.”
“It all will start on Thursday 30th April at 6am for my first lap, which is also Capt. Tom’s 100th birthday and is so very fitting day to start my 100 laps.”
He adds: “I work for a company in Bristol, Gregor Heating & Renewable Energy and lead a team of ‘essential’ workers during these very difficult times. My wonderful wife has reactionary PTSD and one of my colleagues was also caught up in the Westminster Bridge attacks so I am very well aware of the fantastic work that MIND are doing at the moment.”
“So they are getting my full support and all my efforts to hopefully raise £1,000 for such a great cause. ‘Gregors’ have also chosen MIND as their charity for the year so all our company fundraising throughout the year will go to them as well.”
