Many of you will know, or know of, Russ Pinder. He's a BM member and contributor. In March he had a serious bike accident in the Brecon Beacons, sustaining a severe spinal injury that's left him paralysed from the chest down.

It's difficult to see any positive sides to such a situation, but Positive could be one of Russ's middle names. We hear that he's already looking into suitably-adapted sports cars, and he and Dave Barter were so far ahead in the Trailbreak Winter series that they managed to win it without Russ being at the last couple of events... Anyway, there was lots of talk of fund-raising stuff for Russ and his family, but he didn't really want that. What he did want was fund-raising efforts for Air Ambulance services. It was an air ambulance that helicoptered him off the Brecons and without them it could all have been a lot worse. Amazingly, the Air Ambulance service is another of those emergency rescue services, like the RNLI and Mountain Rescue, that relies entirely on donations to keep going. And with every flight costing a thousand quid, they need a lot of donations...

And so the RUSS Appeal was born with the aim of raising as much cash as possible for Air Ambulance services (and in the future, any other mountain bike-connected charities) across the UK. The first big bash is being organised by Trailbreak - Ride for a Flight at Checkendon on 17 August. It's an extremely simple concept - there'll be a loop around the RATZ course and it'll cost riders a ten pound donation per lap to ride it. You can ride as many laps as you like, as long as you've raised the money. How you get it is up to you - sponsorship, out of your own pocket, anything legal basically. Just show up, plonk down what you've got and ride (you'll be able to pre-register and pay up front through the website shortly).

There'll be a Trailbreak Evans ride on Saturday 16 August for those who'd like to make a weekend of it. Full details of the day on the Trailbreak site. The organisers are trying to get very penny going directly to the Air Ambulances. If you can help in any way at all, you can get in touch via the RUSS Appeal email list.