Richard Irwin's sponsored bicycle ride
8 October 2002

On his bike… Richard Irwin

Land's End to John O'Groats

Richard Irwin worked in Vietnam for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He became so captivated with the country and its people that he stayed for seven years. When eventually the time came for him to leave his first thought was to do something for the people among whom he had lived for so long.

Richard contacted Saigon Children's Charity and KOTO, a charity based in Hanoi, to ask if he could raise funds for them. Of course the answer was an enthusiastic ‘yes please'. The result was that having wrung promises of sponsorship out of colleagues and friends the length of Vietnam (and in the UK too) he set off on his trusty bicycle to cover the length of Great Britain. He set off from Land's End, the southwesterly tip of England, on 4 September and arrived in John O' Groats, the most northerly point of the Scottish mainland on 2 October having covered 1,501 miles, or 2,416 km (as he prefers).

We are delighted to reproduce Richard's enagaging and evocative diary in which he describes the places he cycles through. In it we read not only of his very evident enjoyment of local ales but of one or two setbacks and we hear of some simple acts of kindness which do much to help him on his way.

Many thanks to Richard for his efforts in raising money for Vietnamese children. If anyone is inspired by Richard's example and would like to raise money we shall be pleased to hear from you….

Download Richard's diary part I in Word format(33KB)

Download Richard's diary part II in Word format(45KB)

The obvious photo opportunity
A pirate friend in Port Isaac	Gospel Pass in the Welsh Black Mountains
Some offroad cycling on the Tiverton canal	Land's End
Typical Scottish Road down	Ullapool Harbour
West Coast of Isle of Arran	Made it! Arrival at John O'Groats
Fresh from his Lands End to John O Groats sponsored bicycle ride Richard Irwin peddles around to the office of SCC in Saigon to present a cheque for 40,000,000d. Thank you very much Richard for you fantastic effort on behalf of Vietnamese children.