I met Stephen through friends at the Stewart Arms in Notting Hill. Theresa and her husband, Simon, were having a leaving party for Theresa's daughter, Ruby, who was taking a 3-month trip around Southeast Asia. And Stephen told me about his round-the-world bike trip. 

Thirty thousand miles. It sounds like a made-up number when you say it out loud, the kind of distance you fly over while watching crap films and eating stale plane food. But Stephen Aslin is doing it on a pushbike—every single mile.

Stephen is a retired London firefighter. He spent thirty years in the service and finished his career leading the Green Watch in North Kensington. He grew up on those very same streets, kicking around Golborne Road and Portobello, a council estate lad who knew the neighbourhood long before it became a tragedy on the evening news. On the fourteenth of June 2017, the Grenfell Tower fire took seventy-two lives. One of those lives belonged to his schoolmate Ernie.

Stephen could have taken his pension, bought a comfy chair, and watched the world spin by. He chose a different path. When the eighth anniversary rolled around last June, he packed his panniers, put his feet on the pedals at the base of the tower, and started riding. He is aiming for Ground Zero in New York, a journey he calls Tower to Tower. It is a slow, punishing, beautiful ride right around the planet to raise thirty thousand quid for The Grenfell Foundation. That is one pound for every mile

. Every penny goes to youth projects and schools in the shadow of the tower, looking after the kids who have to walk past that grim reminder every single day.

I checked his progress this week. We are in late March 2026, and he has been on the road for over 280 days. Right now, he is pushing through Malaysia, grinding out the miles in blistering heat and wishing the locals a happy Eid before hunting down the nearest convenience store for breakfast. His diet is pure survival and absolute function: chocolate milk, bread, cheese, and sardines. He sleeps wherever he can find a flat spot, pitching up in hostels, campsites, or local fire stations that open their doors to a brother in the trade.

He is not just riding for the cash. He is riding for justice. We are creeping towards a decade since the fire, and nobody has seen a single conviction. The executives and the politicians sit in their inquiries, drowning the truth in paperwork, waiting for the public to forget. Stephen refuses to let that happen. He rolls from country to country across Europe, Turkey, India, and the Far East, forcing people to remember the system that let ordinary families burn in their own homes. He knows exactly what it means to be ignored by the people in charge.

This is a man turning a profound local grief into a global mission. He is currently sitting at just over eighteen grand in the pot. He has smashed past the halfway mark, but he still needs backing to reach the finish line.

If you have a few quid spare, throw it in his bucket. Help keep the pedals turning for Steve and spread the word about his hard work and dedication.

You can back him here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/stephen-aslin-1727783156925