Oxford grad in lycra rides across UK to raise £12k for bar course living expenses

Aspiring barrister cycles 305 miles across England and Wales to crowdfund living costs for bar course.

An aspiring barrister has taken to the road in a bold attempt to crowdfund over £12,000 for his living expenses while studying for the bar. Armed with determination, a bike, and a backpack, 25-year-old Harry Camp is pedalling 305 miles across England and Wales to close the funding gap left by scholarships and limited loan access.

Camp’s challenge, titled ‘Bar2Bar’, takes him from Barsham in Suffolk to Barmouth in Gwynedd—locations chosen not just for the pun, but to symbolise the two nations he hopes to serve as a barrister. At last update, he had already made it to Leicester and was cycling on toward Staffordshire.

Raised in working-class communities across Cumbria, Essex and Cambridgeshire, Camp is no stranger to overcoming financial hardship. Despite juggling part-time jobs, he earned a first-class degree from Cambridge and later completed a master’s at Oxford, graduating at the top of his cohort.

While he has secured a prestigious Lincoln’s Inn scholarship to cover bar course tuition and partial rent, the cost of living during the intensive one-year course remains out of reach. Camp estimates he will need an additional £12,858—money he hopes to raise through his cross-country ride and crowdfunding campaign.

“My family has always offered emotional support, but not financial backing,” Camp explained. “My father, a self-employed carpenter who left school at 16, has worked tirelessly to provide for us. My mother, now retired, was a nurse and physiotherapist with the NHS.”

Despite an outstanding academic record, Camp says he has exhausted all traditional funding options. He applied for further scholarships, approached charities, and explored postgraduate loans—but came up short.

“I was ineligible for an LLM student loan because I’d already used one to fund my Oxford master’s,” he explained. “The bar course I’m pursuing at City St George’s is eight months long. Unfortunately, loans are only available for extended 12-month versions.”

Camp’s CV is nothing short of formidable. Alongside his Oxbridge degrees, he has completed a law conversion course at The University of Law and gained experience through mini-pupillages at leading commercial sets, including Atkin Chambers, Erskine, 4 New Square, Maitland, Keating, and One Essex Court. He has also worked as a paralegal at US firm Weil, and interned at Clifford Chance.

His fundraising page has already pulled in over £3,500, with donations continuing to rise as news of his journey spreads. Should he exceed his target, Camp has pledged to donate the surplus to The 93% Club, a charity supporting state-educated students. He’s also committed to donating a minimum of £15,000 over his career to Bridging the Bar, an organisation promoting diversity in the legal profession.

Camp is set to begin the bar course this autumn, working part-time alongside his studies to minimise further financial strain.

For now, he’s focusing on one goal: reaching Barmouth with enough backing to survive the year ahead.

“This is more than just a fundraising challenge,” he said. “It’s a statement that no one should be priced out of justice—not as a client, and not as a future advocate.