Firstly, Happy New Year to you all!

As many of you know l regularly undertake bike rides to raise funds for Charity — the last one was Peru in Nov 2007 and prior to that I did rides in Kenya, Egypt, Russia, China and Vietnam/Cambodia. The 08-09 touring with Maiden restricted me the last couple of years so this time I have gone a step further organising one myself on behalf of Childline (www.childline.org.uk) and Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy (www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk)

We are going, appropriately enough, back to Egypt, January 21st to 25th! This may not be ideal timing  with all the snow recently making it tough to train but it will be a busy Maiden year after this with a new album later this year and some big shows in the summer.

I am taking about 40 mates with me to cycle 100 miles in 48 hours along the Nile between Luxor and Aswan – we hope it won’t be too hot this time of year!!

With the recession it’s a very tough time for Charities so we are all trying to raise as much as we can, especially as both of these Charities provide great services for children. We are hoping to raise £175-200,000 between us. Any support you guys can give us, large or small, would be much appreciated. All you need to do is go to my personal fundraising page www.justgiving.com/rod-smallwood where there is also more info, details and contacts for the Charities and an easy possibility of making a contribution online.

Charities often have auctions to raise funds so I thought, this time, why shouldn’t we, so here are some items the band and I have come up with. I think they are all terrific and unique, and, as they are a bit special, we thought they should go to a good home – so, rather than the ebay type route, they are being auctioned here to Maiden FC (full and online-only) members ONLY. The items are as follows and following those are directions on how to go about it if you so choose:

ITEM 1: A fantastic GIBSON EPIPHONE LES PAUL CUSTOM (black beauty 3) GUITAR with hard case. Now this really is something special. Not only is it a guitar of the same type as Adrian plays, so a truly collectable item for any Maiden fan to call their own, but this guitar has also been signed by the whole band. As you all know, a signed Iron Maiden guitar is very rare item to become available but as only a fan club member can obtain it we are sure it will go to a good home!  Click here for the auction.

ITEM 2: A poster for the dvd release of “FLIGHT 666”, signed by all members of Iron Maiden. This large poster is a  must-have for any Fan — what a fantastic souvenir of Maiden’s most ambitious tour to date.  Click here for the auction.

ITEM 3: My personalised Platinum disc for USA sales of over 100,000 for our DVD “FLIGHT 666”, one of or possibly the biggest selling music DVD in America last year. You have all seen this movie, wouldn’t the framed disc look great on your wall — it used to on mine!!  Click here for the auction.

So Maiden fans, if you are a member of the Fanclub, to be in with a chance of bidding for any of these highly desirable Maiden specials just go to www.ironmaiden.com/auction where you can view the full details, bigger pictures and bid! The auction has just started, and will run for 15 days, ending on February 2nd.

THANKS to any of you who contribute either on justgiving or via the auction, I can assure that all the donations, large or small, will be put to very good use. I will post a link to the ride website in the Maiden online news section about 4 weeks after we get back with lots of pics and tall stories from the trip.

All the best for 2010, and wish me luck on the ride!

Best wishes

Rod