Sam's tour de France ends under la Tour Eiffel

Sam finally off his bike

The lads did it! The last 30 miles to the heart of Paris were the hardest with confusion about the route and overcoming the complexity of winding their way into the centre of town. Much to the slack jaw incredulity of Eiffel Tower visitors, Katie and I stood proudly with our ‘well done’ banner and cheered the boys home. We had both bought ‘I [heart] Paris’ T-shirts, jammed them on and embarrassed the hell out of Sam waving our banner as they arrived at the Eiffel Tower.


With poor traffic, their last leg was tiring as fatigue and traffic reduced their speed from 28 to six miles an hour. While hubby was thinking of fruits de mer and steak at Bofinger, Sam was thinking about the children of Sierra Leone. And getting off his wretched bike for a while.

For Sam, the highlight of the cycling was using his mountain bike, which didn’t exactly make the trip that easy for him, but when he got to stony forest tracks, he really could enjoy them and shoot ahead of his father’s bike, which was usually far faster. For Chris, the beauty of the northern France was his highlight, taking a leisurely pace through the countryside.

They both fell fast asleep when we headed straight for the hotel for a hot bath and some Deep Heat.

Sam and hubby have both done so well and have had some lovely messages of support from family and friends and, of course, sponsors. Remember they didn't do it for themselves and contributions can still be made to help the children who inspired Sam to do all this in the first place at Justgiving, Sam Ogden-Newton.

We're nearly off!

Leaving London

At dawn on Saturday 2 June, the Queen will be celebrating her Jubilee and part of our little family will be heading off from London to cycle the first leg of a marathon ride to Paris. The whole trip was the brainchild of Sam, my 14-year-old, whose school is raising money for Street Child Sierra Leone. Sam has been so moved by what he has learnt at school about the situation some children face in the world's poorest country he wanted to do something. He wanted to do something really big.

When he came up with this idea, although fit, the furthest Sam had cycled was Sainsbury’s, but even so his father and I made a pact with him: if he could stick to the training and demonstrate that he could actually do the long rides, we would support him. I’m not sure what I expected to happen next, perhaps nothing, but Sam has remained steadfast. He has kept to his training schedule riding up to 70 miles a day with his Dad to places like Windsor and Henley and doing school work, studying for his exams and practising his instruments for upcoming music exams.

Sam is an extraordinary young man. He is loyal, passionate and absolutly determined, to the point of madness sometimes. Or should that be maddening? I don't know if he can do this but I do know he will give his all trying.

So the trip is on even though hubbie and I have been accused of irresonsibility by a number of people for allowing this. Chris is going to do the ride with him (ouch) and Katie and I are bringing up the rear in the family car with spare tyres, sugary drinks and sterile bandages. Plasters 'r' us.

We will also be tweeting the trip and Sam has one of those helmet cameras so I will try to post some footage up on my blog as we go. The plan is to do the ride in four stages, the first being to Brighton on Saturday. We will then be taking the ferry and off to French France.

So as all this is being done for kids in Sierra Leone and as Sam’s school St James wants to give the charity enough money to build a school out there, which is £30k of which they are £4k short, please give. We are half way to our target so any and all contributions are going to be so welcome. I will try to tweet thanks to all those that give those kids a few quid, posting a rousing message for Sam on his Just Giving page as he goes along would be great too!

The link to Sam's Just Giving page, written and designed by him is here.

Public Services Social Value Act in action

Yesterday I spoke at the National Housing Federation’s conference on issues affecting human resources in housing and though I was doing the graveyard shift after lunch, we ended up having a really interesting discussion.

As regular readers will know, I was a passionate supporter of the Public Services Social Value Act that has now been passed, but yesterday was one of the first times I saw it being debated as something that required action. The good news is that the NHF was fully up to speed with the need to respond to the Act; the bad news is it objected to being termed 'public services' under the legislation, which is no doubt colouring its response.

This discussion was fascinating to me and sadly popped up at the end of the session so we did not have time to fully expand on it. But for me the issue is clear: government retains the right to legislate to require those delivering public services to comply with such things as the demonstration of enhanced social value, but it needs to be clear in its own mind that spun-out services like housing associations are delivering public services but are not in themselves the public sector and that clarity should be carefully worded in any subsequent legislation.

For the Transition Institute this will be key ground. We need to speed up the transition to a time and space where government feels comfortable with directing and regulating public service delivery without having to revert to the group think that everything that happens in public service delivery is in fact the public sector.

I have since re-examined the Act and I think the confusion comes where the "regulations" are deemed to apply to the "relevant authority", which has been widly interpreted as government. We need everyone on our side to make sure the Act gets a fair run so the Transition Institute will be seeking clarity on this as, no doubt, will the NHF.

Another plea: Please sponsor my son Sam Ogden-Newton, he is working so hard to be ready for this epic ride to Paris, we even had his hearing, which was never good, checked out today to make sure he can hear those French cars coming up behind him. Street Child is a wonderful charity and Sam is a gutsy kid who needs your support, so follow this link to feel wonderful about yourself.

   

My Sam and the children of Sierra Leone need your help

My 14-year-old son Sam is training hard to cycle the 220 miles from London to Paris in aid of Street Child Sierra Leone in three weeks, and he needs your support. To sponsor him and his Dad, who is going to do it with him, just go to Sam Ogden-Newton's page on JustGiving.

Chris (front) with (l to r) Joe, our
friend Nick and Sam, off for a ride

Sam's school, St James in Ashford, has been fund-raising for Street Child, which gives a better future to children living on the streets of the world's poorest country.

When Sam was asked to think about what he'd like to do to help, he had been really moved by the stories of the precarious lives of these children, so different from his own, so he decided to really challenge himself and try to make a difference.

His father Chris and I want the children to be ambitious and if they feel able to, to push themselves. So even though Sam is only just 14 and many people think we are mad, we have agreed to this personal challenge as long as his Dad cycles with him and I can bring up the rear in the back-up vehicle, otherwise known as the family car, with puncture kits etc. on board. 

We have only just sorted out the dates for the journey to fit around Sam's school schedule; so he will be setting off on Saturday 3 June. That leaves just three weeks to train with the added complications of a mildly fractured hand (rugby at the weekend) and out-of-shape Chris (note snuggly fitting yellow cycle jacket above). 

Still it's all to play for and the boys are trying to fit 35 miles in each day between now and push-off. Go on, it's a great cause and Sam is a great kid with a big heart and the courage to really help others, even those he has not met.

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