Life cycle: bike team pedal to Croatia to raise cash for The Steve Reid Foundation

Beat ‘n’ Trail Team members celebrate reaching Croatia. Photograph: The Steve Reid Foundation

BBC radio DJ Gilles Peterson has congratulated a four-person team of cyclists who pedalled from Dalston to southern Croatia in 15 days to raise cash for musicians’ charity The Steve Reid Foundation.

Tom Morgan, Sarah Jones, James Skinner and Henry Worssam – who called themselves the Beat ‘n’ Trail Team – raised over £12,000 by completing the mammoth bike ride, which involved scaling the knee-cracking heights of the Alps.

The Steve Reid Foundation, which was set up by Mr Peterson, is named after the American jazz drummer who died in 2010.

It distributes funds to organisations involved in frontline work to help musicians ‘in crisis’.

Organisations it has supported have included the Musicians Benevolent Fund and Jazz Foundation of America, which helped elderly musicians stuck without electricity and heating on the East Coast of the United States after Hurricane Sandy.

One of the musicians currently being supported by The Steve Reid Foundation is jazz saxophonist Arthur Blythe, who is struggling with Parkinson’s disease and recently underwent a serious kidney operation.

Mr Peterson, whose Brownswood Recordings label is based in Brownswood Road, Stoke Newington, said he was “extremely inspired and grateful” for the cycling team’s efforts.

He said: “I speak on behalf of the Steve Reid Foundation trustees in saying how proud we all are of the Beat ‘n’ Trail Team. Thank you Tom, Sarah, Henry and James. What you’ve achieved is the ultimate display of endurance, drive, tenacity and team spirit.”