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UNISON member and mother-of-three Dawn Lote is set to cycle 217 miles across the toughest terrain in Brazil, all in aid of Mencap. Gary Flood reports

Ride of her life

If someone tells you they get up at 6am in the morning for an hour's bike ride, and rack up at least 60 miles a week doing it, you'd think they were either a fitness maniac or had a lot of spare time on their hands.

UNISON branch secretary Dawn Lote isn't the former and says, as a full time convenor and 38-year old mother of three, she hasn't much of the latter.

What she does have is the determination to help people less well off than she, which is why she is making time to train as well as she can for a gruelling physical challenge most of us would stand a chance of completing.

Dawn is cycling 350 kilometres (217 miles) in the space of a week at the end of August (Aug 27-Sep 6) across tough, hilly terrain in Brazil.

The Brazil Bike Rid project is a trip from Ouro Preto in the Minas Gerais region to Rio de Janerio, in aid of Mencap, the largest organisation in the UK caring and campaigning for people with learning disabilities.

"It's been hard work finding the time, doing the fundraising, and doing all my training," she says. Which is why she has to get up so early - she literally doesn't have any other time to fit it in. "It's not going to be a holiday!"

Dawn has paid her own registration fee and is committed to raising a minimum of £2,500 for Mencap, but needs your help to do so.

That's why she's asking any UNISON member willing to help sponsor her to send donations of any size to her in Boston so she can make a deadline later this month of handing over part of the money the charity has asked for.

Dawn at least has the benefit of having done something like this before. In November 2000 she raised £3,700, again for Mencap, when she rode coast to coast across Costa Rica. But this time the ride is likely to be a much harder experience.

"I need to do a lot more hill racing, as that's going to be a big factor. Trouble is, there aren't many in Lincolnshire - it's flat as a pancake!"

Dawn trained for six months for her previous jaunt, starting with a five-mile bike ride three times a week then working up to 10 miles a jaunt three times a week, and finally 20 miles every other day.

This time she's trying to keep to a similar schedule but has added a stationary option - she has what's called a static cycle machine which she says she can use to train in bad weather. Not that she's that bothered by rain: in Costa Rica she was rained on all day for four out of the seven days.

Sounds like fun - not. Why do this, and why Mencap? Dawn says she had a friend who had a teenage daughter with learning disabilities who was helped by Mencap.

Then, when she found out that it regularly ran these types of challenges, she decided to have a go: "I'd never done anything that really had challenged me both physically and mentally like this."

Dawn has been a Branch Secretary for South Lincolnshire Health for four out of the 14 years she has been a union member.

Owen Davies, UNISON national officer for the community and voluntary sector, says that she deserves support but is far from being unique.

"There are an awful lot of UNISON members taking part in voluntary sector and community activities," he says.

UNISON earlier this year entered into a partnership with Mencap as an organisation, which means its 5,000 employees are getting information about UNISON membership.

"The sort of people who work for Mencap are exactly the sort of people who should be in this union," adds Davies.

So if you don't feel like getting up tomorrow to race 20 miles with Dawn, the least you could do is help her and the charity by giving her support with your chequebook. Sounds a lot less tough, doesn't it?