Charity

A charity in the London Borough of Croydon that is dedicated to helping disabled people enjoy cycling is appealing to local businesses for funding after it learnt its funding application to the council for the coming year had been unsuccessful.

The seven-year-old boy from London whose bike ride to raise money for earthquake victims in Haiti captured worldwide headlines has seen his fundraising total pass £200,000 – more than 4,000 times his original target of £500.

A seven-year-old boy from London who set himself the target of raising £500 to help earthquake victims in Haiti by cycling around his local park has raised more than 100 times that amount, and donations are continuing to flood in.

According to his page on the charity donation site Just Giving, Charlie Simpson aimed to complete at least seven laps – equivalent to five miles – of South Park, near his home in Fulham this weekend to raise money for Unicef, and managed to fulfil that goal yesterday.

A 35-year-old man from Penarth, South Wales has beaten off competition from 1,100 other candidates to win a placement with charity Friends of Pedal Power, which seeks to make cycling more accessible to people with disabilities in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

A Norfolk man has put his bike maintenance skills to good use over the last decade, recycling more than 10,000 bikes to raise thousands of pounds for charity in the process, and he is eager to get his hands on more unwanted machines for which he can find new homes.

Lawrence Dallaglio isn't a name you'd normally associate with cycling, but the former England rugby captain is saddling up for a 2,800km charity expedition this February, and dragging a hoard of celebrities and an army of volunteers along for the ride. As you might expect, there's a big rugby influence on the route.

Cyclists’ organisation CTC plans to make 2010 a landmark year in its 131-year history by adopting the status of a membership-based charity. The news comes as the organisation, which counts 63,000 cyclists throughout the UK among its membership, reflects on what it calls “the most successful year” in its history.

One lucky cycling fan is being offered the chance to follow a stage of the 2010 Tour de France from the Garmin-Transitions team car through an eBay auction that aims to raise funds for The Independent newspaper’s 2009 Christmas Appeal.

So far, the prize, which carries with it return flights for two people from the London area and an overnight stay in shared accommodation in France, plus a Garmin-Transitions goodie bag, has attracted 39 bids, with the highest to date standing at £1,551.