Action Through Enterprise, a charity founded in Ramsbury and working in northern Ghana (see below), and Macmillan Cancer Support will benefit from Pete Willetts’ 1,000 mile ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats. His sponsorship target is £20,000.
Lots of people have travelled this route to get into record books or to raise money, and many have done it on or in stranger vehicles than Pete’s bicycle. But for Pete it will be a special challenge.
He was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and is now known locally as ‘One Lung Pete’ – and cycling 1,000 miles in two weeks is a big stretch. After the removal of a tumour and more, he had to have chemotherapy at Great Western Hospital: “The chemotherapy absolutely drains you. It drains all of your enthusiasm for life.”
The decision to do this ride began as a rash dinner party notion by three ‘Sunday morning cyclists’, and became reality after Christmas when training began – slowly: “We’ve stepped it up a bit – going further beach week and losing a bit of weight.” They start their ride on May 24 – which is looming ever closer.
“It is,” I suggested gently to Pete, “quite a challenge.” “It isn’t half! I did 40 miles on Saturday and wasn’t much use for the rest of the day. But then it wouldn’t be worth doing if it wasn’t a challenge – after all, cancer’s a challenge.” And that is why they are calling it ‘Our Big Ride’.
Pete will be joined by Charles Gardner (whose daughter Sarah founded Action Through Enterprise (ATE)) and Steve Tippins (who now lives in Marlborough.) The three families have been friends since their children went to primary school together in Ramsbury.
Pete works in Andover for Twinings – the world renowned tea people. He is their Supply Operations Director and travels to their factories in China, Poland and India.
He told Marlborough News Online that if the ride was going to raise money, Macmillan Cancer Support had to benefit: “It is the great work of Macmillan that supports people like me and their families, at a time when the huge dark cloud of cancer is looming over their heads.”
Pete admires the work that Sarah Gardner’s ATE is doing in Ghana – the proceeds of the ride will be split fifty-fifty between the two charities. Our Big Ride’s sponsorship page is here. And you will be able to follow later preparations and their progress in May on their blog.
And when you talk to Sarah Gardner about that work, it is obvious ATE needs the money: “Our funding is under huge pressure.” ATE raised £130,000 last year and the target for this year is £180,000. Over 70 per cent of the funding comes from around Ramsbury.
Recently back from Lawra in northern Ghana and a visit to ATE’s projects, she is very pleased they have added a second school, a secondary school to their school meals services – and as with the primary school, the PTA is very involved in all the decisions and in building work. They are now feeding 654 students every day – and the free meal encourages school attendance, raises health and makes them more likely to learn.
It is two years since they began feeding children at Karbo Primary School. In that time attendance at school is steady at 96 per cent and above. The children’s average weight for each class has increased by four per cent. And they are healthier.
ATE pays the £1 per child per year that qualifies them for health care under Ghana’s national health insurance scheme. That and a supply of clean water has brought a ‘dramatic drop’ in deaths of young children: “If they get malaria, they now go to the local hospital, get the drugs – and they survive. That’s hugely exciting.”
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ATE’s three development strategies are worked around education, special needs and business – the last being the ‘enterprise’ of the charity’s title. Forty small-scale enterprises have been set up – and 86 per cent of them are profitable after six months and start re-paying their start-up money.
The Zambo Weavers Association was one of ATE’s first enterprises – and they are still flourishing and growing: “They produce cloth with stunning designs and it sells. There are three of them and they’re not in poverty anymore.”
“In Lawra they can’t get the money to get started, they need seed money and a bit of help with their accounts and so on. And they work so hard – it’s really exciting.”
One of the latest schemes involves David Quensa and his pigs. His local pigs were not quite right for his dream of starting a business. So his seed money was used to import pigs that like the climate, grow fast and breed fast. Now he is beginning to make a living as a farmer. That is action through enterprise.
There is much more news and information on the ATE website – and there is a donate function there too.
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