Over the last 25 years, we have helped raise over £84,000,000 for thousands of incredible causes. Our charity clients include: The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, CoppaFeel!, the British Heart Foundation, Mind, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Sands, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Prostate Cancer Research, the NSPCC, Comic Relief, UNICEF, Save the Children and hundreds of smaller organisations. We are hugely experienced at operating challenges to the highest standards of quality and safety and will do all we can to help your organisation recruit and engage participants and supporters.
We caught up with British Asian Trust to chat about how their latest Cycle Goa challenge went…
Please introduce yourself…
I’m Camille Boukhaled, Event Manager at British Asian Trust and in February 2025, 18 of our supporters completed ‘The Most Exotic Bicycle Tour’ in Goa, India. Together, we cycled a total of 250km through the hills of the Western Ghats, jungles and reserves, in tropical and challenging terrains – raising a total of £450,375 for the British Asian Trust.
Why did you choose Charity Challenge?
We’ve been working with Charity Challenge on our overseas cycling events since 2016. We keep going back to Charity Challenge because they’re just excellent at everything that they do. We always require bespoke challenge events – so a brand-new route, very custom requests in terms of hotel styles and extra activities that help make the offer more exciting for our participants. There is no one else that would do all of that for us – Simon and his team go above and beyond every step of the way, which keeps us coming back. Not to mention, the leaders and crew always know exactly what to do – they’re friendly, trained up and help every step of the way. It’s a great partnership!
What were you hoping to achieve?
The British Asian Trust does developmental charity work in South Asia; primarily India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We have done a few previous cycling challenges in the north of India. India is always a powerful destination for our cause as we’re able to visit some of our programmes and talk directly with the people that we work with and help. This year, we decided to do a cycling challenge in the south of India, so Charity Challenge presented us with a few options, and we chose Goa. Our brief was a destination in India that we haven’t been to before, where we could cycle 250km in just four days (we wanted a shorter challenge) – and we also wanted good quality accommodation along the way.
We’re always looking to raise as many funds for the British Asian Trust as we can. Since starting these cycling challenges in 2016, we’ve raised over £3,000,000 – so every year is even more exciting than the last! In 2023 alone, we raised just over £700,000, which was also matched by one of our funders. This year we’re over the £450,000 mark, with loads of great sponsorship – so we have definitely hit our targets. The ride was spearheaded by two long-term supporters of the charity who have been with us since the charity was founded in 2007. We put out the call for cyclists within our network and theirs. It’s nice that we often get some families or couples on a challenge together. We also do some great filming of the cycles challenges, which helps with fundraising and with engaging possible future participants.
How did it go?
It went really well and we were pleased to reach out fundraising targets, especially with a slightly smaller than usual group of participants. The ride itself was amazing – in Goa, everything was taken care of every step of the way, the team on the ground were friendly and took care of everything that we needed.
What were your highlights?
Goa was so beautiful, and it was unique to see it from that vantage point. The participants loved the cultural aspect – how they could be cycling with cows running alongside them and meeting locals on the roadside. We built in some visits to our local development projects – and being able to touch base with the work we do really helped with reminding people why they were taking on the challenge and fundraising. This was definitely a unique highlight.
It always feels like the trip of a life time. The bonds that the group form throughout is lovely and the group chat is still going! It’s very moving when you’re taking on a physical challenge, knowing you’re doing it for a good cause, with other passionate people – the energy is just really powerful.
What did Charity Challenge do well?
Pre-challenge: Charity Challenge are fantastic – we know organising a bespoke route is not easy, but they always rise to the challenge for us. They work with our unique requests to the best of their ability. They’re super supportive and willing to be flexible where possible. Part of my job is comparing event services to other suppliers and no one else is willing to create something brand new for you. You can always reach someone and never have to wait long for a response.
During the challenge: On the ground, the local leaders are brilliant. The team was prepped fully and Simon (Charity Challenge Director) would check in with us on a regular basis to make sure we were attended to. We’re aware that Charity Challenge can have multiple challenges running at the same time, so knowing that we will still receive that direction attention and care is great. The team were also open to making small route tweaks where possible, helping us get the most out of the challenge, whilst keeping everybody safe.
Post-challenge: It’s always great post-challenge – we have conversations to keep the relationship going, whilst looking ahead to the next challenge!
Testimonial
I’d highly recommend Charity Challenge to any corporate or charity. I don’t think there’s anybody else who do it like Charity Challenge does…you’ll just have to see for yourself!
Camille Boukhaled, Event Manager at British Asian Trust
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If you’re interested in engaging your employees with a challenge event – book your free initial consultation now!
During our consultation, we will discuss your business needs, goals and values, provide you with options aligned to your objectives, and then of course, answer any questions that you might have. We’ll also discuss what support we offer and how we will work together throughout your challenge journey.
You can expect this call to last about 30 minutes. We look forward to speaking with you soon!
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