Cycle to MIPIM 2024: What riding 1,500km for charity really means

Every year dozens of individuals from across the real estate sector choose a different way to travel to MIPIM. They choose to don their lycra and commit to raising thousands of pounds for charity as they pedal 1,500km from London to Cannes. The ride itself is an opportunity to network and make life-long friends across the industry. For many it also serves as a kick-start to the year’s fitness goals, with miles of training undertaken in the cold, dark and wet winter months. But the true value of the event is in the money it raises for charity and the impact that has on individual lives. This year more than £211,000 has been raised for Club Peloton-supported charities and we asked three of them what the Knight Frank Cycle to MIPIM means for them. Coram Coram works to change children’s lives for the better, child by child. Children’s chances in life still depend on where they live and who they live with, and 2.3m children are living at risk in the UK. Every year we support hundreds of thousands of children, young people, and families. We tackle the big challenges too, working to improve the UK’s systems and policies to improve key outcomes for children and young people, including our aim that children have a loving home. More than 2,000 children in England are waiting to be adopted, and the latest statistics show they are waiting longer to find permanent families. We find families for children awaiting adoption. We run Adoption Activity Days, which take place nationwide, enabling the children waiting the longest to meet with approved adopters in a fun and informal setting. One in four children who attend an Adoption Activity Day are matched with adoptive parents. Thanks to the incredible amount raised as part of the Knight Frank Cycle to MIPIM, we could fund 21 activity days, helping children find that loving home. Or it could help us deliver 1,240 sessions of post-adoption support, such as creative therapy for children dealing with issues such as trauma. “At an activity day, you can see the children interact, smile, play and discover their little characters and their potential. If I had read my son’s profile, instead of meeting him at the activity day, I might have decided his needs were too great,” says Laura, who found her son at a Coram adoption activity day. “But as soon as I met him, I knew he was my son and he really is the perfect match for my family.” Cyclists Fighting Cancer Funds raised from Knight Frank Cycle to MIPIM will be used to help children living with and beyond cancer to get pedalling on their road to recovery. Whether that is on a standard two-wheeled bike, a specially adapted trike for a child with more complex needs, a tandem if the child has sight loss, or an adapted bike because a prosthetic is used, we have never yet failed to get a child pedalling. It will also be used to help fund our new project of providing the 21 paediatric oncology units in the UK with junior recumbent exercise bikes and other exercise equipment, which they currently do not have. We work closely with these units and have provided equipment to three centres so far. The bikes are used by the staff in their physical activity and physiotherapy sessions for the children on a daily basis, in both their inpatient and outpatient departments, with children actively asking to use the equipment out of choice rather than being sat still. Providing bikes for children to use at home, as well as giving children the opportunity to access the junior-size exercise equipment during their inpatient stays and outpatient appointments, ensures that they are able to maintain a good level of activity at all stages of their cancer journey and beyond, having a huge positive impact on their physical, mental and social wellbeing. We are very grateful for the support of Club Peloton and all the magnificent Cycle to MIPIM riders for helping children with cancer throughout the UK by providing these bikes, trikes and exercise equipment and bringing some much-needed joy and fun back to family lives during a very challenging time. The Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust The Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust is a grant-giving organisation that exists to help tackle the root causes of violent street crime in London by helping disadvantaged young people see the potential value of their own lives and therefore the lives of others too. The trust is 100% volunteer run, with no overheads, so every single penny raised is passed directly to our carefully selected, highly effective partner organisations. We currently support 18 different grass roots charities, programmes and youth centres offering a wide array of life-changing services across all the most deprived areas of the city. The money raised by this year’s Knight Frank Cycle to MIPIM riders will pay for hundreds of young people at risk of being recruited into gangs, being excluded from school or of re-offending, to receive mentoring, pastoral care and vocational training through four flagship programmes; bicycle repair and retail by XO Bikes in Lewisham and Wandsworth; creative writing, acting and performance by Scene & Heard in Somers Town, Camden; catering and hospitality by SwitchBack in many London prisons and young offenders’ institutes; and leadership skills and sports in Southwark and Lambeth by Southside Young Leaders Academy. The impact of the funds the cyclists donate to these initiatives via the trust is carefully monitored and reported on to ensure we are creating the maximum social return on investment and generating real, measurable, positive outcomes for young people facing difficult starts in life. Photo © Club Peloton/Matt Alexander