COP26: Children’s Hospital staff cycle through Sheffield park on route to conference

The Ride for Their Lives event that started this week has seen staff from six UK children’s hospitals set off on a 500-mile cycle to raise awareness of how climate change and air pollution causes illness and death, especially in children.

The week-long bike ride started at Great Ormond Street hospital on October 24 and will end in Glasgow on October 31, where a letter will be delivered to world leaders at the COP26 conference.

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust staff, Gary Candow, Philip Branford, Jenny Featherstone, and Jaime Gray are all taking part.

Cyclists, including those from the Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, passed through Weston Park in Sheffield on October 27 on route to the climate conference in Glasgow.

Rider Philip Branford said: “It’s going really well. We’ve had good weather and the wind behind us, most importantly. We had a bit of rain on the first day, but it's been good.

“It’s nice to see all the people here today and everything that is going on. It feels good to be doing something and it’s obviously for an amazing cause as well.”

Ruth Brown, acting chief executive of Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “To have so many people here today is just incredible. We’ve got a few from our team that have cycled and some that have come from London. I’m just really proud of everybody. It is brilliant.

The event was attended by ten-year-old ‘Captain’ Tobias Weller from Sheffield, who has raised more than £150,000 for local charities during the pandemic through a series of challenges for his local school Paces and The Children's Hospital Charity.

Speaking about his work for charity, he said: “I love raising money for my favourite charities and knowing that I have helped other children is an amazing feeling.

“My overall goal is to raise as much money as possible for charity and to build up my strength and endurance at the same time.”