Sutton Coldfield resident Alastair Frew is taking on a 130-mile bike ride to raise vital funds and awareness for local children’s charity, Oliver ’68.
A commercial property lawyer and a partner in the Real Estate practice of Midlands law firm Lodders, Alastair, a keen amateur cyclist, will set off from Boldmere on the 23rd June and cycle the 130-miles to Llwyngwril on the Welsh coast in just one day.
Leaving at 7am and with a target of 11 hours to complete the ride, Alastair expects to reach the seaside finish at around 6pm.
Oliver ’68 is a small charity which takes children from across Birmingham on a Welsh seaside holiday in a house in the heart of Llywgwril village, which is just outside Barmouth.
In a bid to drum-up awareness of the work of the charity, encourage volunteers to join-up and help, whilst raising funds, Alastair, a former pupil of Sutton Coldfield’s Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, says he is taking on the one-day cycling challenge to help boost the charity’s profile:
“Fifty years ago, the founders of Oliver ‘68 purchased a house in Llwyngwril, and have been giving disadvantaged children their holiday of a lifetime, ever since.
“Inner city kids deserve a summer holiday as much as anyone, and this is what motivated the group of friends in north Birmingham to buy the house back in 1968, and set-up a charity that would take impoverished children on holiday, so they can experience the seaside and life away from Birmingham’s urban landscape,” he says.
“Many families can’t afford the luxury of a summer holiday, and their kids have never been away, have never seen the sea. The work of Oliver ’68 and its incredible team of volunteers means that over the past five decades, hundreds of disadvantaged children living across Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield, have been given their holiday of a lifetime.
“Earlier this year, a founder member of Oliver ’68, Kay Monk, asked me if I would undertake a sponsored bike ride to help raise awareness and funds for the charity,” he adds. “I couldn’t refuse.”
The bike ride challenge will take Alastair the 130-miles from Boldmere in north Birmingham to the Welsh coastal village of Llwyngwril.
The route will take him over the high mountain pass at Dinas Mawddwy underneath the summit of Cadir Idris about three hours before the end of a long day in the saddle, and then descend towards the Welsh coast to finish the ride.
He says: “As Saturday 23rd June approaches, the size of the challenge is starting to loom large.”
Alastair cycles at least 45-miles every weekend with a group of friends, regular time in the saddle which he says has formed an important part of his training.
“The training is going well,” Alastair says. “As well as the all-important time cycling, I also spend 20 minutes every day on an unorthodox fitness regime, which is a mixture of trampolining and yoga, designed to build up ‘core strength’. The best place for cardio-vascular training is out on the roads, but I firmly advocate the use of exercises such as stretching and ‘pelican-ing’.
“The ride on the big day will be really hard, but if I can churn out those 45-milers on a Saturday, there is no reason why I can’t manage 130 miles for a good cause.”
To find out more about Alastair’s cycling challenge for Oliver ’68, where you can donate to support the charity and his bike ride, visit: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/alastairfrew1.
For more information about Lodders: www.lodders.co.uk.
Lodders is a premier law firm in Stratford upon Avon, Cheltenham, Birmingham and Henley in Arden. The firm has 25 partners and over 130 fee earners and support staff across its office network. With its portfolio of sector and market specific top-ranking legal teams, the firm has recorded year-on-year growth in recent years.
Oliver ’68 is a voluntary organisation which undertakes to provide holidays for disadvantaged children from inner-city areas around Birmingham, at no cost to the families. It offers traditional family holidays for groups of six or seven children between 7 and 11 years old, with the children nominated by their school and adult members of Oliver ’68 accompany them on their holiday, which is normally about 5-7 days long. To date, the registered charity has provided holidays for over 2000 children.
