On your bike for Ben

There’s just one month to go until three UK automotive industry leaders will cycle on water and ride the River Thames from its source to London, in the Epic Thames Waterbike Ride. This is the latest of the Industry Leader Challenges, organised by bodyshop magazine charity partner Ben.

Jon Wakefield, until recently managing director of Volvo Car UK, now heading up the firm’s Swedish national sales company, Tim Tozer, CEO of Allianz Partners UK & Ireland and Darren Guiver, managing director of Group 1 Automotive, have been training since April to get ready for the challenge of their lives.

The trio will be tackling 10+ hours of cycling per day, including on self-propelled Schiller waterbikes, from 4 to 7^t July.

So far, over £142,000 has been raised through the challenge, for Ben to support automotive industry colleagues going through tough times. This amount is growing all the time and Jon, Tim and Darren are on track and determined to reach the fundraising target of £300,000.

Jon said, ‘Training has been a real eye opener – you’d be surprised how much harder it is to cycle on water than land. That said, we’re really looking forward to riding the river for Ben. After all, the work the charity does for those in our industry is invaluable. Thank you to our kind supporters: your donations have been really generous. For those who haven’t yet donated, there’s still time – we really appreciate your support.’

Darren added, ‘I’m feeling both excited and daunted at the same time. There’s not long to go now so we’re ramping up the training and getting prepared. If you do one thing today, please donate to this worthy cause. Thanks to everyone who has donated already, it’s so appreciated. By supporting Ben, you’re supporting your own.’

Tim said, ‘We can’t wait to get going now – training has us fired up and raring to go. If you haven’t been checking out our progress so far, we hope you’ll be following our journey when the time comes.  In the meantime, we’d like to say a heartfelt thanks to all who have donated so far, your support has been a huge motivator. We still have some way to go to meet our target so any future donations will be hugely appreciated. Your money will really make a difference to your colleagues in the industry.’

To watch the latest training video Click here and to donate please visit
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/benilc2019

Matt Wigginton, business development director at Ben, said, ‘We’re truly grateful to everyone who has donated so far – we can’t thank you enough. Please help Jon, Tim and Darren reach their target and smash last year’s ILC result! Cycling on water, on one of the busiest rivers in England is no small undertaking, so please give generously.

‘We wish Tim, Jon and Darren all the best on their journey and want to thank them for supporting us, and the people of our industry, in such an epic way.’