Jim Giles and Jason Moles both met through their work at Cygnet and quickly became good friends with a shared love of cycling.
The pair heard about WAITS through their colleague Pat Hemmings who is Cygnet’s Quality Assurance Manager for the West Midlands. Earlier in the summer WAITS organised a dragon boat race which the pair went to and afterwards came up with the idea of another ride then.
WAITS is an established charity which has collaborated with and supported women who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse for 30 years and specialise in supporting women from Black and Ethnic Minority Communities.
Last year they completed a charity bike ride from Birmingham to London and this time decided their route would be from north to south returning to Birmingham.
Describing their route Jim said: “The total distance was about 110 miles and we broke it down over two days stopping in Newport, Shropshire. We caught the train up to Liverpool and went across the Mersey on the ferry and down the Wirral to Chester.
“It was a tough first day about 65 miles but the second day was a lot shorter. Overall for two men of a certain age I think we are quite proud of ourselves. We certainly don’t consider ourselves to be the next Bradley Wiggins!”
Jason added: “It was for a very worthy cause and we hope to do more in the future.”
So far the pair have raised £375 for WAITS and are still accepting donations on their Just Giving page.