Charities

Dear readers,

As I have the chance to do this trip and take some time off to hopefully have a wonderful summer touring around the country, I would love to do it for a little more than just my own personal enjoyment.

Therefore I have chosen charities that are in need of financial aid to do their very important work. It has been hard to decide which to support and I finally decided on three as they are in various ways connected with the ride, the people around me or myself. Please choose which one is most important for you to support - or just support all of them to make a bigger difference.

As a person lucky enough to live in rural Wales, I have come to see just how far away from certain facilities we live. Should someboy in my area have a medical emergency, it may well take an hour to get to the nearest hospital in Carmarthen, but they are not equipped to deal with many kinds of emergencies. A trip to Cardiff would take two hours, which seems totally unrealistic for a patient with a heart attack or stroke where minutes, if not seconds, count. Wales Air Ambulance is therefore of great importance to the citizens of Wales and relies on donations to operate.

Their website is: www.walesairambulance.com

Secondly, as there are horses involved in the trip; or rather, as the horses are to be the heroes of the trip, it is only fair that those equines that are not so fortunate as to have a loving and caring home should be helped. We would therefore love to see lots of people donating to Lluest Horse and Pony Trust that does a fantastic job caring for horses, ponies and donkeys in need and, if possible, finding good new homes for them when their health allows it.

Their website is: www.lluesthorseandponytrust.co.uk

Thirdly, this organisation is of special importance to me personally. As a virtually vegan veggie who has been veggie since the age of seven and believes very strongly in animal welfare, I would love to support Compassion in World Farming. They stand for the good treatment of farm animals, work to improve their situation and to, hopefully, outlaw inhumane factory farming worldwide. Besides donating to such an important cause, I can only appeal to everybody to stop and think for a moment before going for the cheapest meat or eggs in the supermarket, which are probably a product of animal cruelty. I do not pretend to be able to make the world vegan, but would love to see a more conscious approach to food choice. Every little bit can and will make a difference in the end. After all, if there is no demand for such products, there will be no offer.

Their website is: www.ciwf.org.uk

I have set up three individual Just Giving pages for you to donate directly and very easily.

Please visit:

Wales Air Ambulance
www.justgiving.com/ridearoundbritainforwalesairambulance

Lluest Horse and Pony Trust
www.justgiving.com/ridearoundbritainforlluesthorseandponytrust

Compassion in World Farming
www.justgiving.com/ridearoundbritain

or simply go to www.justgiving.com and search for Elizabeth Hill where you will find them all.

Many thanks for your help and donations!