Five members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cycled from London to Huddersfield, a distance of 250 miles, to raise money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. John Perrin (Scarborough), Michael Gore (York), Robert Siswick, Roy Blair and Michael Siswick (Huddersfield 1st congregation) wearing their Huddersfield Town supporters shirts, completed the gruelling task. In conjunction with 300 fellow supporters, the five friends undertook the journey to help raise funds, through sponsorship, for a cause that is very much needed but has to be completely self supporting in order to operate. The helicopter ambulance charity needs £10,000 a day to remain airborne.
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The journey was done in four stages. The starting point was the Emirates stadium, Arsenal's home ground in London. From there they cycled to Cambridge, a distance of 55 miles. The next stage of the journey was from Cambridge to Leicester which was 72 miles and from there on to Doncaster which took them another 85 miles. The last stage was covering the final 45 miles into Huddersfield where all the cyclists met at the town's football ground.
They did a lap of honour as the crowd roundly applauded them. The hardest leg of the journey was from Leicester to Doncaster when they were caught in heavy rainstorms and had to battle fierce winds. Intrepid, resourceful and persistent they kept to their pre-determined course. Many and varied are the lessons that any member of the Church could draw from their experience.
The journey took 3 days, from 26th to the 29th April, although the memories they made and the good they achieved will last much longer.