Charity Cycling Campaigns 2018-2019

In 2018 The Fire Fighters Charity had their 75th anniversary year and ran their #My75Miles campaign.  I cycled it with my Fire Bear mascot and raised £1,825.41 riding over 1,598 miles while climbing the bike to the equivalent height of Mount Everest, The National Three Peaks and Isle of Man's Snaefell combined.

Following lung Cancer surgery that cost me two lobes of my right lung in October 2017, I started cycling again on New Years Day.  I joined their campaign on 12th February and had my first flat tyre on the first fundraising ride on St Valentine's Day!   All proceeds from this story go to The Fire Fighters Charity.  The book of the first six months of the journey is published as Dammers Rides Again Book 1.

The first 75 miles was hard and took me about two weeks.  I rode 999 miles for £999 by August when I got a medal at the Tour de Broads for 75 miles in a day.  My story to June 21st is in a Kindle Edition eBook on Amazon titled  "On yer bike, Walker! #My75Miles cost £7.99 

In 2019 I'm riding as 'Team Dammers' for The Winton Foundation for the welfare of bears.  I've published a book of verse with the title of "Rhyme Time - In the Company of Bears" to help them raise much needed funds and maybe gain a wider audience for their good works.  My Paperback version is £9.99  and generates £4.15 due to the £5.84 cost of printing but the eBook version at US $6  also produces £4 from each for The Foundation.

I need your help to reach my new target.  I'm cycling for Team Dammers  #teamdammers Tweet to @DammersRideSaga it's just me & a Bear, cycling again to try and raise £1 per mile for the Winton Bear Foundation.

Here is my 2018 Fire Fighter Charity cycling and fundraising blog page and my 2018 "Give Now" donor and sponsor's page with photos and lots of other cycling campaign stuff. 

During 2018 I searched to find the fire charity's founder bear mascot but he is in the hands of an unapproachable collector now and hidden from public.  He was born out of a hose fire and blaze at the home of sculptor Peter Fagan who modelled bear figurines and has a collectors club.  The original bear was made by Sue Quinn in Paisley and one of her Trail-Blazer bears is my new companion on the bike.  I have acquired a teddy bear collection over the year called a 'Hug' and it contains some limited edition bears I was given to look after and a set of Peter's fire bears. The Hug is still growing.  Bring a bear and ride with me for Winton.

On my 1st anniversary of one-lunged cycling on New Year's day 2019 I arranged a ride and walk in Cranfield with donations from entrants going to The Winton Foundation for the welfare of bears.  We raised £107.26 for the day.  The 'Button' takes you to their "How to Donate or Contact" page & website.

Everybody benefits if you share your experience and you make a donation however small.  It is possible to make one off and/or regular payments and details are on the Winton site by pressing the button above.  Their site is full of bear facts and stories. The Bearable pages are good news but be warned; before reading the "Un-Bearable" page that some humans are very cruel to bears and this may not be suitable for younger or sensitive persons but it is factual and happens every day somewhere in the world.  The bears definitely still need our help