Online article (pasted below) at http://egremont2day.com/2014/08/journey-to-the-east/
Journey to the East
By Rachael Grealish.
Riders Pippa, Nick, Will and Laurence after building their custom bikes!
A bike ride for charity is common achievement, 5 or 10 miles usually being the average one rides to raise money for their chosen charity, but Laurence Gribble from St. Bees and his team of 3 other Cambridge graduates have set the bar a bit higher by cycling from London to Hong Kong in aid of Prostate cancer.
“We wanted to do the trip for a while, but we were inspired by the prostate cancer UK ‘men united’ campaign and having seen the effect of the ‘no make-up selfie’ we thought it was important to help raise the awareness and profile of prostate cancer.”
The four graduates of are attempting to clock 15,000km by April, with Laurence and Nick cycling the whole way from London to Hong Kong. Laurence said “For every kilometre we cycle we want to raise £1 for Prostate Cancer UK – a total of £15,000 to help British men in their fight against prostate cancer. Over 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, and over 250,000 men in the UK are currently living with the disease. In fact, it’s pretty rare to meet someone who has not had a personal family connection with prostate cancer.”
This trip will see them cycle 15,000km across 15 countries over 9 months, with temperatures ranging from +40C in Turkey to -40C along the Pamir Highway in mid-winter. “We’re doing it over nine months because to us it’s not just about the destination, it’s about the journey.”
A third of the journey takes place in China, but why China and Hong Kong? Laurence said “All four of us studied Chinese studies at university it made sense to do a decent amount in China. Plus, Hong Kong it’s such a significant city in Asia, it’s like the London of China.”
Though three of the team will be heading back to the UK at the end of the journey, Laurence himself will be moving on to Beijing; living and working there, “I’ll be carrying on working there for a travel agent I worked for last year in Beijing, which specialises in tourism to North Korea”
Follow Laurence and the team on twitter and Instagram throughout their trip by following @jtteast or by reading their blog: journey-to-the-east.com Also don’t forget to donate and support them in their journey online: https://www.justgiving.com/journeytotheeast/
1 August 2014
Journey To The East 