Charles McCaig

Charles is a criminal justice worker in Dorset and is father of Stefanie, a student of the Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) up until 2010.

Whilst discussing with a colleague the stresses of their jobs the conversation turned to Charles’ daughter Stefanie. Together they decided they would like to raise funds for RNC and started to plan a challenge beyond anything they had attempted before.

“I wanted to give something back to RNC after everything that the College did to help Stefanie. The money we raised helped to support the great work that the college does for so many people with sight loss.”

Enlisting two more friends to take part, they decided upon a cycling themed fundraiser and set about plotting a route that would take them from Weymouth in Dorset to RNC in Hereford. 140 miles over two days!

After much training, the day arrived and they set off! The cycling proved gruelling as they tackled each hill one after another after another, suffering a puncture and tackling heavy peak time traffic near towns. But they made good progress and after an overnight stop in Bristol they completed the second day in only 7 hours, arriving at RNC at 4.20pm. The College was able to offer a quick massage for the weary cyclists before they met up with Stefanie for a well deserved meal out.

On top of this fantastic physical achievement, the team also raised sponsorship totalling an incredible £1,800 for RNC.

Congratulations and a huge thank you to Charles, Stuart, Pete and Bob! We hope you weren’t two tyred!!

Charles hints and tips!

1. Choose an activity that will challenge you, that you will enjoy and that you will feel a huge sense of achievement once completed.
2. Plan for every eventuality. We planned our route well making sure to consider the types of roads we would be cycling on (remember motorways and some bridges are not open to cyclists). We drove the route to calculate the mileage and to check for anything that may cause problems.
3. Enlist support. We were lucky enough to be supported by The Ocean Spa who provided us with exercise programmes and training facilities; Westham Cycles for one of our bikes and repair kits; ASDA in Weymouth provided supplies for the journey; and The Bristol North Hilton Hotel who kindly provided us with an overnight stay and breakfast. The overall most important support was from my daughter Claire who drove the support vehicle providing food, water, repairs and encouragement, along with Toby the Dog. 

Charles and his team raised their sponsorship by collecting cash from supporters and also through an online fundraising webpage. To find out how you could set up your own webpage or plan your own fundraiser please click here.