A thirteen strong cycling team from a Financial Planning firm have collected nearly £8,000 to help poor, orphaned, and disaster affected children by riding 300 miles from Paris.
Staff at Old Mill, the 2014 IFP David Norton Building Excellence Award winners, used pedal power to raise the money for Yeovil based charity School in a Bag. They travelled from Paris to their offices at Maltravers House in Yeovil during July.

The challenge was organised by David Rice and staff from all the offices participated, with some riders taking up cycling for the first time.

The team comprised (as shown left to right in photo above) Simon Pearson a SIAB volunteer, Old Mill's Simon Cole, Hannah Ridley, Tony Westhead, David Rice, Elaine Kinsella, Kevin Wheldon, Stuart Grimster, Sally Harrison, Phil Kirkpatrick, Nick Baker, Will Vincent, Louise Rycroft, Chris Tweedie, and Luke Simon, founder of School in a Bag.

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Starting under the Eiffel Tower, the group rode more than 100 miles on the first day to reach Bernay, spending nearly 11 hours in the saddle. On the second day they covered 77 miles from Bernay to Bayeaux while they rode 71 miles to Cherbourg on the third. The final day was back in the UK cycling the 51 miles from a wet and busy Poole to Yeovil.

They raised £7,916 for the charity, which delivers rucksacks filled with stationery, learning resources and eating utensils to poor, orphan, vulnerable and disaster affected children.

P2Y is the second cycling challenge organised by Mr Rice. Last July, nineteen staff took part in the Old Mill Office Cycle Challenge, where staff aimed to raise £5,000 for School in a Bag by cycling the 140 miles between each of Old Mill’s five offices (Melksham, Wells, Yeovil, Dorchester and Exeter) in two days.

They more than tripled their target then, raising £15,500, and Mr Rice said he was delighted to have been able to organise another successful challenge again this year.

He said: “The challenge was exhilarating, and great fun, the camaraderie was fantastic. The French countryside and roads were really enjoyable, everyone was so encouraging towards each other, and we also received fantastic support from friends, family and colleagues as well as lots of Old Mill’s customers.”

Simon Pearson, a SIAB volunteer, and Luke Simon, the founder of SIAB, joined Old Mill on the ride.

Mr Rice said: “Massive thanks much go to our support crew, who were invaluable providing much needed drinks and refreshments, as well as Luke and Simon from SIAB for their fabulous co-ordination for the event”.

Mr Simon said: “They made it really good fun. We had a really great cross section from across the company, some quite junior staff right up to one of the firm founders. It was just amazing that we had this group of people that just gelled so unbelievably well.”