Vebra's Chris Wray gets on his bike to raise money for Shelter

GMG Property Services would like to congratulate Vebra’s employee, the UK's leading estate agency software provider, Chris Wray, who successfully completed the Coast to Coast (C2C) cycle challenge, raising funds for Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, along the way.

C2C is Britain’s most popular long distance cycle route; running 147 miles from Whitehaven in Cumbria on the west coast to Sunderland in Tyne and Wear on the east coast. As a keen cyclist, Chris decided to take on this challenge, as it was something he had always wanted to do and thought that raising money for Shelter was the perfect way to keep himself motivated.

Chris definitely found the trip an eventful one and ended up covering 156 miles over the three days. Passing through the quaint village of Loweswater in the Lake District on Day One, he saw a large Mercedes with a HRH number plate, before having to tackle the tough off-road terrain across the moors, which in the end became a three-hour walk. He also had a slight mishap with a stream and ended up having to ride for 20 miles soaking wet until he reached his stopover point in Penrith. A lot of mileage was covered on Day Two, as Chris unfortunately followed the wrong signs and had to retrace his tracks for eight miles, but luckily he found Hartside Pass and the Pennines a lot tamer than he was anticipating. After spending his second stopover in Northumberland, Chris encountered another hard climb on Day Three, but once he had passed Stanhope in County Durham, the last 30 miles were downhill all the way to the east coast.

Chris commented; “It was difficult to know what to expect of this trip, but I knew it would be a long ride, with big hills and there was no telling what the weather had in store!

“I opted to finish in Sunderland because my grandparents are originally from the area and I wanted to see the shipyards where my grandfather would have worked. He would often regale me with first-hand tales of ill health, no work and poor accommodation and it’s unacceptable that a hundred years on there are still 2.2 million households in Britain today owned by local authorities that don’t constitute ‘a decent home’. Shelter is trying to address these problems by continually lobbying the Government to take action and that’s why I decided to support them in my cycle challenge.

“I had a fantastic trip and have so far raised around £300. I am very proud of my achievement and would recommend it to any keen cyclist, especially if you are able to raise money for a worthwhile cause at the same time.”

Mark Goddard, Group Managing Director of GMG Property Services, commented; “Well done to Chris on this amazing achievement. He certainly had some tough challenges to overcome and we are very proud and impressed that he successfully completed this ride in aid of Shelter.

“Since GMG Property Services entered into the two-year employee fundraising relationship with Shelter last year, staff across all our offices have made a great effort to support the charity and have taken part in a range of madcap initiatives to raise funds. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved, as so far we have raised several thousand pounds and hope to add to this throughout the rest of the year.

For more information on Shelter, visit http://england.shelter.org.uk/