Six pupils and five members of staff from Lord Wandsworth College have just completed a mammoth sponsored bike ride, cycling from Anglesey in North Wales back to the college near Odiham in six days. 

Inspired by tragic events affecting the whole college in the February half term of 2004, when two pupils sadly lost their lives on the same day, the intrepid cyclists undertook the 300-mile ride to raise money for two charities, CRY and Sightsavers International. 

CRY, Cardiac Risk in the Young, is a charity which raises awareness of potentially genetic cardiac abnormalities in young people, offering bereavement support for families and promoting screening for those at risk.  Sebastian English, a pupil at Lord Wandsworth College, lost his life to undetected cardiac disease aged just 15. 

On the same day, Mike Sorby, a pupil in the lower sixth, lost his life in a skiing accident. Mike was a keen supporter of Sightsavers International, a charity which provides simple but life altering eye operations to those in the developing world who would otherwise not have access to such treatment. 

The pupils and staff are tremendously grateful to the huge number of people who have sponsored them on this at times gruelling ride, who enabled them to raise over £3,000 to split between the charities. 

Headmaster Ian Power, who took part in the ride, commented: “I’m very proud of the pupils and staff who took part in this ride.  It took many weeks of training, and required determination and strength of character in all who participated. 

“We are all delighted to have raised money for two very worthwhile charities, and to have a further occasion to remember two boys who played a very active part in the life of our college."