Please Donate Kindness

“I don’t want people to donate money, I want them to donate kindness.”…

Ever since Nahla’s partner died while cycling, she’s been carrying out an annual challenge in his memory. In 2020 Nahla cycled 5000 miles across the UK, spreading kindness along the way. 

Nahla, 40, explains:

Paul always used to say I had more jam than Hartley’s - good things seemed to happen to me.  When he died, I felt like all my luck ran out. Paul, 44, and I were together five years. 

In March 2012, he attempted a charity cycling challenge, 162 miles in two days. He wasn’t a keen cyclist. He was hesitant and I assured him I’d pick him up if he didn’t want to continue.

He called from the road. ‘I think I’m having a heart attack,’ he said. Moments later he passed out. He was rushed to hospital but died almost instantly.

I didn’t leave the house for a long time. After a few months, I went to the beach to watch the sun set and suddenly, everything that felt so dark, felt lighter. 

Paul was the kind of man who’d go 100 miles out of his way to help a stranger - that’s a true story, he did that. After he died I was telling a nurse about him and when I looked up, she was crying. I was inspired to set up Sunshine People, asking people to donate not money, but kindness. 

I decided to climb Mt Snowdon. I didn’t want donations, just kindness. ‘Can’t I just give you a tenner?’ was a common response. One friend kept promising he’d do a good deed. After a few months, he told me he and his son had taken a homeless man for dinner and had a life-changing experience. ‘We took away more than we could give him in food,’ he reported back. His son learned a valuable lesson about privilege and they both felt good because they hadn’t walked by.

I remember thinking wow, this is important work. 

In 2018, I cycled 3000 miles across America six weeks after purchasing a bike. 

In 2019, I walked from Swanage, Dorset to Gretna Green, visiting schools along the way. 

In 2020, I travelled the UK on an elliptical bike and finished by cycling a route which spelled out the word ‘kindness.’ 

I hope to raise one million acts of kindness and am encouraging people to take part in a lockdown challenge, doing something as simple as saying hello to someone you pass on a walk, or picking up litter, or calling a friend. 

Kindness is contagious and when we do a good deed, the recipient might just go on to be kind to someone else too. People have been incredibly kind to me. Strangers offer me a room for the night, cups of tea, hot water and hot chocolate. I wasn’t very kind to myself after