One Week's Sponsored Cycling

Dear Friends and Supporters:

We hope all is well with you.  As you know, our philosophy in the Maria Relief Fund is: that others are important to us, in particular when they are disadvantaged and distressed children.  We are motivated to bring the possibility of change into their lives.

I take this opportunity to introduce the project Alison is undertaking.  Two years ago Alison organized a cycling sponsorship with her friend Anne, with whom she cycled the length of Ireland - around 550 miles - in 11 days.  As an academic with over 40 years experience of lecturing and helping thousands of students, she was delighted to hear our main focus: to help the children with their education.  She was also very pleased to be told that we have organized a regular English class for these children and their families on Friday evenings, at our Maria community centre in Chortkive, Ukraine.

Recently Alison informed us that she is following the current situation in Ukraine, and has decided to arrange another Cycling Sponsorship.  When I asked her "why such a challenging plan? You have already been helping Maria Relief Fund for more than 7 years," she replied "I would like to make a small additional difference to the lives of the children particularly at this time of difficulty in Ukraine."

"The cycling will be challenging for me, not only because of the distance, but also because it is a very difficult and hilly route.  I hope I will be able to complete it.  It is a challenge in its own right but I feel that if I could also help the children a little by doing it, this would make it even more worth while."

Alison described her plan: "We are going to cycle the Yorkshire section of the 'Tour de France'.  The actual length of the trip is less in miles than the Ireland one, but it will be more arduous.  We believe that it is also very beautiful and we are looking forward to meeting some local people en route."

We in Maria Relief Fund are delighted to have such a keen long standing supporter, and wish Alison great success with her undertaking.

We are aiming through this project to raise enough funds to help 75 families.  We hope to be able to send £150 to each family. We will be very grateful for any support you feel you may be able to offer.

With my warmest regards,

Hamid

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Cycling the Tour de Dale!

In August, 2014, Anne and I cycled 140 miles along the route of the first leg of the Tour de France. This doesn’t sound much - it is less than half the amount we did when we cycled the length of Ireland, but it felt like twice the length. We did several ‘mountain men’ routes where long stretches of the road were 1 in 4 hills – this was hard going down as well as up as we had to hang on to our brakes and watch out for cars coming either way along the narrow lanes. The roads wound round and round as well, like mountain roads.

At times we really struggled and the hills felt endless. We counted our footsteps – ‘yes, we did walk some of it!’ – in whichever language came to our mind. I practiced my Farsi!

The scenery though made it all worthwhile. It is really spectacular and it changes all the time, from farmland, with cows and hens and even a few crops, to moorland with sheep and grouse. There are, we discovered, different types of sheep in the various dales – the Swaledale sheep have black faces and legs.

We stayed in some decent B and B’s and had some wonderful food – some great Yorkshire breakfasts and some ‘fat rascals’ – like a cross between a scone and a rock cake.

We found the people we met to be really funny and kind. They would egg us on with ‘get on your bike’ or ‘she’s not far ahead love and she’s sweating’ (said to the one of us who was behind on the hills!).

All in all it was worth it and even more so to know that we might have helped a few Ukrainian families at this difficult time for them. If it was difficult for us, how much more difficult is it for them.

Alison Assiter, August 2014.

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