Suffolk dad to visit Shipping Forecast points on charity cycle

A cyclist is embarking on a tour of Shipping Forecast points to "give people a giggle" for charity.

Tim Dotchin, 40, from Nayland in Suffolk, will also sleep rough and live-stream himself singing karaoke during the 3,328-mile (5,356km) feat.

The railway worker wants to raise £1,500 for homelessness charity The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

He said he chose the points because "it's always really nice to hear [about] the weather patterns".

The father-of-one will set off on 2 June - and the 21-day national tour will begin and end at the inshore station at North Foreland, in Kent.

Other stops include Whitby in Yorkshire, Cape Wrath in the north of Scotland, and Land's End in Cornwall.

Mr Dotchin said he hopes his cycling tour would "give people a nice giggle" and also help raise awareness of the homeless.

Hotels would "cost too much", he said, so bus shelters, church porches and motorway underpasses will become his sleeping places on the trip.

Sleeping rough was "quite dodgy sometimes", he added, but there were "very few people you meet who have bad intentions towards you".

He has previously helped in soup kitchens and said homeless people had often "fallen by the wayside".

"The world has turned their backs on these people and not enough help has been given to them to help themselves," he added.

The Shipping Forecast is broadcast four times a day on BBC Radio 4 and is a weather report for the maritime industries, depicting sea conditions around the British Isles.

The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields said the money raised by Mr Dotchin could "bring more people into their centre for food, hot showers, fresh laundry and so much more".

A spokesman for the cause added: "His support means a lot to The Connection and we hope it can raise awareness around the growing issues facing people sleeping rough in London."

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