Octogenarian cyclists raise funds for Costessey parish

Although many charity events were cancelled this year, Michael and Paula Hughes were still on their tandem raising funds through sponsorship. Michael shares this report.

Amid all the Covid-19 gloom, the Norfolk Churches Trust was still able to run its annual sponsored Walk, Ride and Drive event. On September 12 cyclists and others were encouraged to tour the county’s historic churches to raise funds for the upkeep of the fabric of church buildings and also to support the work of active parishes.

Last year, as the event came close to the date of our Diamond Wedding, Paula and I set ourselves the target of visiting 60 churches in the day. We actually managed 64, beating all other cyclists.

We entered again this year, but in order to be sure we maintained Social Distancing opted to avoid most of the inner-city churches in Norwich. Gone were the tea and cakes, gone were the chats with those signing us in at most of the churches and even stranger, we saw no one else cycling on the same quest. 

The overall result won’t be known until early next year as the sponsorship money can be handed in for the next couple of months, but I expect there will be a shortfall. In our case, the £840 we raised was a little short of our £900 target but almost matched what we collected last year.

Pictured above are Paula and Michael Hughes with Fr David Ward at Our Lady and St Walstan, in Costessey, Norfolk.