A CROWBOROUGH man carried the thought of a Tunbridge Wells charity with him on a gruelling cycle ride to and from Westminster Hall on the weekend of The Queen’s funeral.
Dominic Nevill said: “The Queen struck a chord when she said how every day should be exciting. I woke up Sunday morning and thought – how could I honour her truly amazing reign?
“I pledged some money to the Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre in Tunbridge Wells – a great charity – and then decided to jump on my bike and ride up from Crowborough to Westminster Hall.”
Mr Nevill cycled into the centre of the capital where he saw crowds of people queuing to pay their respects to The Queen in Westminster Hall, and then met his family, who had come up by car.
However, instead of ‘slinging the bike in the back of the car’, he then issued a call to friends back in Kent to pledge funds to the Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre to motivate him for the return journey by bike.
“I thought I would ride all the way home, truly aching,” he said.
Sharing Pickering’s PayPal details, he told friends: “I’m being terribly pushy – apologies – but if one, some or all would like to pledge something to the Pickering centre in honour of The Queen, you would really make the journey highly motivating.”
His return journey took two hours and forty-five minutes, despite legs which were ‘definitely a bit stiff’.
Pickering’s co-founder Polly Taylor said the news of the ride reached them at the drop-in centre on Tuesday morning.
She said: “Coming into the centre this morning after a day of mourning watching our wonderful Queen’s funeral, we had a phone call from Dominic Nevill that lifted us all.
“We felt so humbled to have been thought of and remembered on such a powerful day for the nation.”
She told the Times the donations from his shout-out could total as much as £2,000, but said: “Even in her death Queen Elizabeth II brought the community together and that our little charity was considered in this way is quite overwhelming.”
