Charity ride at-risk kids
BRIAN Wheeldon is about to embark on the ride of his life – cycling the length of Europe to raise cash for at-risk kids in New Zealand and the Pacific.
Wheeldon, 60, will next month start an 8000km trip from the northern tip of Norway to the southern tip of Sicily.
The former banker, now an early childhood teacher at the Ellerslie YMCA, hopes to raise $20,000 for Save the Children – to be split between the charity’s Pacific Children’s Fund and its Child and Youth Council in New Zealand.
‘‘I love cycling . . . [and] I am really passionate about the sense of community in New Zealand . . . I sense we are starting to lose it,’’ Wheeldon said.
‘‘Save the Children . . . [make] the rights of the children . . . their No 1 priority, in New Zealand and in [the] Pacific.’’
Wheeldon will cycle about 100km a day for 80 days, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.
He leaves for Helsinki on June 24, and will spend six days acclimatising in the Finnish capital before travelling to the Norwegian municipality of Nordkapp to start his bike trek.
‘‘It will be pretty testing, but I’m not inexperienced,’’ he said.
‘‘I am fortunate enough to have been able to go to Europe every year for a long time. I often cycle from Nice to the Alps, into [Switzerland] and Austria . . . I know I can cycle a couple of thousand kilometres. This isn’t my first longdistance bike ride but it’s certainly going to be the most challenging.’’