Anyone wishing to make a donation to Help For Heroes can donate at: www.justgiving.com/TheHopsons.

Back in 1980 Matt was injured whilst training in the Army.  After an operation he was sent to RAF Chessington Rehabilitation Centre where he found himself amongst men from the Parachute Regiment injured in the Warrenpoint bombing.  It's an experience he has never forgotten and, to this day, he wonders what happened to these men (and many others like them) and what support they received.  RAF Chessington did a fantastic job and Matt was back in training within months and later found himself serving in Northern Ireland. 

Thirty years later, with men and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with horrific injuries, Matt and Julia's sons – Guy (17) (a keen cyclist, rugby player and cross-country runner) and Tom (15)  (a boxer, rugby player and triple jumper) – asked if they could spend a fortnight of their summer holiday cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End in aid of Help for Heroes (www.helpforheroes.org.uk).   Matt thought it was such a fantastic idea he had better cycle with them. As part of his preparations Matt has lost 2 stone during his cycling training and hopes to lose more on the way down.  The plan is for the entire family to leave Penzance for John O'Groats on July 9th and then leave John O'Groats for Land's End on July 11th.

Julia (www.knitwitspenzance.co.uk) will be driving the backup campervan and the boys were concerned that she would get terribly bored waiting for them.  And so the idea of the "End to End Sweater" was born.  Designed by Cornish designer 'Tina Barrett', and using Cornish Organic Wool the sweater will be cast on by Julia at John O'Groats and, all being well, she will be wearing it at Land's End 13 days later.

Julia says she's never knitted a sweater in such a short space of time and isn't a particularly fast knitter so she can see herself knitting late into the night with the exhausted cyclists snoring around her. So far as we know, this challenge has never been done before and she thinks that getting the Guinness Record for the Largest Knitting Needles was a doddle compared to this challenge!

The boys' school has kindly agreed to lend them a laptop and Julia is hoping to update her blog daily so you can follow their progress (both cycling and knitting) at www.knitwitspenzance.co.uk and then click on "Julia's Blog".

Anyone wishing to make a donation to Help For Heroes can donate at: www.justgiving.com/TheHopsons.