From April 2015 Phil Brotherton will spend roughly three months travelling across 12 countries to raise money for the Royal British Legion and the German Volksbund.
Phil will begin his journey from Galipolli, Turkey, and follow the First World War front line over the mountains of Greece and Macedonia, through Serbia, over the mountains of Slovenia and Italy, and then finally into France and Belgium.
He will cycle, walk and climb the 3,500 miles whilst leaving a trail of 2015 Poppies as a sign of remembrance to all who died from both sides in the Great War.
One thousand of these poppies will have the names of children from some of the countries involved in the war written on them.
For the other thousand poppies, Phil is asking for anybody else who would like to have a token of remembrance laid for them along the route to sponsor a poppy.
Phil, a mountaineer and Civilian Instructor with the Air Cadets, says: “My aim is to follow as near as possible, the front lines of the campaigns that stretched across Europe… This isn’t an ordinary bicycle tour though, it will be about 3,500 miles of sweat, fear, pain (not much I hope) and emotions. There’ll be sand, sun & snow, plus probably quite a bit of rain. Beaches, forested hills, flat plains & rugged mountains. Wherever the trenches ran, I’ll be following.”
More information about Phil and his expedition are provided on his facebook page and website.
Posted by: Hannah Schneider, Centenary News