Linking up Against Loneliness Sponsored Challenge by Nicky Gardner

Vietnam to Cambodia November 25th- 5th December 2022

Hello there, I'm Nicky Gardner and this is my story on how I came up with the idea for the challenge. The desire to ride this challenge was first born in 2014, as with many people the usual ups and downs of weight lead me to join Slimmer’s World. It was in their monthly magazine they had an advertisement for this challenge. At the time I was still a full-time Police Officer and I knew it would be hard to get 12 days off and it was quite an expensive trip. Roll on 8 years, once again too much of a good thing lead me back to Slimmer’s World!! I bought the monthly magazine and there it was again, the Vietnam to Cambodia cycle challenge. After a little thought and a friend telling me…”Just do it!”, I signed up.

Many people undertake the challenge for a charity and I thought it would be a great opportunity to raise some money for Age Concern Petersfield. When I retired I volunteered for the charity as a minibus driver and then helped during the Covid lockdowns, delivering lunches, helping deliver prescriptions etc. We also undertook putting together a weekly newsletter in which we included interviews with the users and the volunteers. One of the questions was “what do you miss most during lockdown”. The main answer from the clients was “People”, just talking and meeting with people, even if it was just going to a local shop. It was clear that loneliness was a big thing and even though we are back to some type of normal, for many loneliness is still a big issue. So….I spoke with Sheridan the ACP Manager and suggested undertaking a project targeting that issue and using the ride to raise awareness and funds to help and here we are!
Owen Pattison of Owen’s Cycles has supported us by sponsoring the challenge shirts, so everything raised goes to the charity.

The challenge itself is 12 days, which includes 260 miles cycling from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and I hope to send back daily reports and pictures to keep people involved in my journey. If you’d like to sponsor me please see the link below:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nicky-gardner-vietnam-cambodia2022

Thank you very much for your support.

Nicky Gardner

Thanks to Terry, one of our drivers, for picking up Afghan refugee families in our minibus for a much needed chance to connect with each other, share food, and for the children to have fun. We have loaned our minibus for two of these events held at the Heath for Afghan families that live across the Hampshire area.