\n Richard Winstanley OBE, former army colonel and current trustee of the veterans\u2019 homelessness charity Alabar\u00e9, will cycle from St Paul\u2019s Cathedral in London to Churchfields in Salisbury on Saturday, June 27.\n<\/p>\n
\n The cycle challenge follows his participation in Alabar\u00e9\u2019s Big Sleep event, the first public sleepout to be staged in the gardens of St Paul\u2019s Cathedral.\n<\/p>\n
\n Richard Winstanley OBE is cycling 140 kilometres in aid of Alabar\u00e9. (Image: Alabar\u00e9)\n<\/p>\n
\n Taking place on Friday, June 26, the event aims to raise \u00a3200,000 to support veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ride is part of his efforts to raise funds and awareness for the charity\u2019s work supporting ex-servicemen and women.\n<\/p>\n
\n Richard said: “I just thought the sleep-out itself was probably not tough enough.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There\u2019s a certain connectivity in cycling from St Paul\u2019s back here to Riverside House in Salisbury.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s 140km, and I\u2019ve got a good friend coming with me who\u2019s not doing the BIG Sleep to help keep me awake.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But it\u2019s just to raise a bit more awareness, and hopefully more funds.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Richard Winstanley OBE is cycling 140 kilometres in aid of Alabar\u00e9. (Image: Alabar\u00e9)\n<\/p>\n
\n Alabar\u00e9 operates 16 Homes for Veterans across the South West and Wales, offering 90 bedspaces to former military personnel.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since 2009, the charity has supported more than 2,000 veterans with accommodation, health and wellbeing support, employment guidance, and help toward independent living.\n<\/p>\n
\n Richard, who has been a trustee of Alabar\u00e9 since 2023, has already raised more than \u00a38,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “St Paul\u2019s Cathedral is iconic. If you ask somebody where St Paul\u2019s is, they will know.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We\u2019re extremely fortunate to have the Dean allowing us to use it and the garden for this extraordinary sleep out, the night before Armed Forces Day.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Richard said the issue of veterans\u2019 homelessness remains close to his heart.\n<\/p>\n
\n He continued: “It\u2019s a great shame that we have anybody who is homeless, for whatever circumstance, particularly veterans who have served our country.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Nobody wants or chooses to be homeless, and yet they\u2019ve fallen on hard times, and this is our chance to help them, to raise some money and awareness, and to improve their lot.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The Big Sleep will include an evensong at St Paul\u2019s, a concert beneath the cathedral dome, and personal testimonies from veterans who have been supported by Alabar\u00e9.\n<\/p>\n
\n Alabar\u00e9 needs to raise at least \u00a31.7m each year to continue its work.\n<\/p>\n
\n To donate to Richard’s fundraising mission, visit justgiving.com\/page\/richard-winstanley-2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Winstanley OBE, former army colonel and current trustee of the veterans\u2019 homelessness charity Alabar\u00e9, will cycle from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}