We held our annual presentation evening on Thursday 16th July and surprise surprise, like the day of the main ride, the weather was warm and sunny for our ride around Coniston Lake.

After the steady ride we were certainly ready to enjoy the hospitality at The Prince of Wales at Foxfield on our annual presentation night of cheques to our various charities.

Top of the list again this year, and our main charity, was Macmillan Cancer Support who received a whopping £100,000 from Mrs Lynne Whitton.

Both the North West Air Ambulance and the Great North Air Ambulance received £15,000 each.

Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue also received  £15,000

These three charities being instrumental in rescuing riders injured on the day, and the Mountain rescue manning the mountain tops and coordinating the communications with RAYNET, another one of the voluntary organisations that provide an outstanding service, along with the BAE First Aiders, The Ulverston Inshore Rescue, and Ambleside Kirkstone Rotary Club.

This year we have also donated £10,000 to The Cumbria Flood appeal. You may have not seen much evidence of this on your ride but it did affect quite a lot of the route, and there are still bridges that are unusable and people still out of their homes.

The other donations we make are part of Fred’s legacy helping young cyclists of all abilities, this year they include …

Racing Chance Foundation who are supporting youth and junior lady riders by riding as a team in two continental stage races.

Sandside Lodge School we have provided invalid bike’s and trike’s for children to complete their Duke of Edinburgh work and other projects.

Millom Bespoke Cycling Club who by themselves have sourced old cycles, repaired them and then the children have completed the Coast to Coast ride taking 4 days where they camped and cooked their own food.

Inspire Racing Team again helping a youth junior racing team to gain continental experience with stage races in Germany and Belgium.

Allithwaite Pump Track we are now in our final year of helping them self build and maintain at track for all to use.

These projects and other smaller ones have had donations totalling around £30,000 this year alone.

If anyone has a good youth cycling project or would like to know more about the ones we help please contact us.

Hopefully with your generous help we can continue helping our selected charities for some years to come, thanks again to all concerned, Fred would be proud of you all.

Paul Loftus MBE
President Fred Whitton Challenge 

Posted by Russell Holden on Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 @ 12:58PM
Categories: Lake District Rides, MACMILLAN

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