A third year student from Leicester is one of 10 of a team of cyclists who are to cycle ‘virtually’ from John O’ Groats to Land’s End in aid of Sport Relief 2016 as of Saturday 27th February.
Fran Cutts, aged 20, is joining the challenge as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of one of the UK’s largest providers of student accommodation, Unite Students.
The determined student attended Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College in Leicester before accepting a place at the Royal Veterinary College in London.
She has been training relentlessly ahead of the challenge, and during her training she even managed to meet Tour de France veteran and World Champion cyclist Mark Cavendish, who offered to help her change a punctured tire.
Fran said: “I got involved as I wanted to raise money for such a good cause.
“Sport relief focuses amongst other things on supporting vulnerable people with mental health problems, which is a cause close to my heart.
“The challenge itself will be a battle against the weather and fatigue, both physical and mental. My personal target is to raise £1,052 which is a pound for every mile,” she added. “This is a huge total for me, and with the public’s help I hope to beat it.”
The static bike challenge, from John O’Groats to Lands End (also known as JOGLE), will be a part of a series of events that will encourage everyone to ‘take a seat’.
It will run from the 27th February to the 11th March, and staff and students will be cycling 250,000 miles and hope to be raising £250,000.
It will be listed under the campaign title of “The World’s Biggest ‘Virtual’ Tandem.”
The main aim of the challenge is to achieve the greatest mobilisation of the student population for a good cause.
Aiming to get 10,000 students involved, it will enable them to come together to achieve something on a mass scale.
This will enable the communities that they live in to recognise the positive impact that they make.
Fran added: “In preparation I joined CC London, the all-inclusive cycling club, who have been very supportive. They have helped me with my training and they have provided some great advice.”
Mark Allen, the Unite Students Chief Executive, had this to say: “Sport relief is one of the UK’s best loved charities and we wanted to help our 46,000 students get behind it, so we’ve organised a host of opportunities for them and other students.
“We want as many students across the UK as possible to get active and get involved to help us reach our goal of £250,000.”
Unite Students, who have been running since 1991, have a charitable trust named The Unite Foundation.
They house over 46,000 students in 138 properties across the UK.
Their charity aims to provide free student accommodation and a generous annual scholarship to young people in the UK who face the most challenging circumstances, but aspire to a degree.
“We are delighted that Unite Students are taking on such an amazing challenge for Sport Relief,” said Cassie Emanuel, Fundraising Manager at Comic Relief.
“We wish them the best of luck with their fundraising efforts.
“They are helping to give extremely vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the UK and across the world’s poorest communities a helping hand to turn their lives around.
“If anyone is inspired by Unite Student’s extraordinary efforts they can head to sportrelief.com to get involved.”
Fran’s Just Giving Page is:
https://www.justgiving.com/FranCuttsJOGLE/ Text Giving Code: NSBR67
To find full details about the challenge go to:
http://www.unite-students.com/sport-relief
By Emma Smith
