In memory of my father Gerry German and to raise funds for the organisation to which he passionately gave the last 12 years of his life to, I will be cycling over 400 miles and climbing four alpine mountain passes on a sponsored cycle ride between the 19 and 28 July.

The route will take me around Lake Geneva, down into Italy and over to France. One of the ‘highlights’ will be up the famous Alpe d’Huez climb that is often host to a dramatic lung busting upward haul in the Tour de France. I expect to climb over 7,000 meters over the course of the Alpine section before heading to flatter pastures on my way to the French Mediterranean and the city of Marseille. I will be sleeping in my tiny one man tent and cooking my hot meal of the day on a camping stove on the way.

I am aiming to raise £3,000 towards continuing the provision and continuation of the charity's advocacy and representation service for parents and their children. All the money raised will go towards providing CEN’s services.

Since its inception 12 years ago CEN has supported some 6,000 pupils who have encountered problems with their education, particularly school exclusion. We are proud to have had a nearly 100% success rate at reintegration through providing a highly personalised advocacy service to pupils and their  parent/s or carer/s which Gerry was instrumental in modeling.

The problems remain for many parents and their children in education. The two recent reports from the Centre for Social Justice (No Excuses) and the Children’s Commissioner (They Never Give Up on You) into school exclusions have both borne out what CEN has been saying for years that schools are all too frequently illegally excluding children from school.

I am therefore asking you to sponsor my 400 mile bicycle ride.

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