LONDON, July 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

He's already conquered the sea as the youngest ever person to sail around the world when he was still a schoolboy in 2009. Now adventurer Mike Perham, 20, is embarking on the road trip to end all road trips, having set off to circumnavigate the globe from Prime Meridian Walk in East London on a soggy, grey July morning in the capital.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120705/543298 )

Mike's route will take him from the UK, through Europe, to Russia, China, Laos, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and across the US before returning home having negotiated some 23,000 miles of road. He hopes to have raised at least £1 per mile for the international aid relief charity, Shelterbox, by the journey's end.  

World First, who are sponsoring Mike's trip as well as managing all of his foreign exchange, were on hand to present him with an honorary World First 'hoody' and to set him off on a 'currency challenge'.

Mike will start with £100 and exchange it at the local bureau de change at each border crossing. The question is how many countries will it take before the £100 is reduced to nil, because of the poor exchange rates and fees you get hit with when changing up your currency in this way?

Karen Eisen, Marketing Director at World First, said:

"At World First we love to support any world firsts and we're delighted to be supporting mike on his epic journey around the world. It will be really interesting to see how quickly the £100 disappears as he changes it up from country to country.

"People don't realise just how short-changed they are by using the local bureau de change, and hopefully this experiment will help to demonstrate why people really should be looking for a fairer exchange when it comes to currency transfers."

Mike will be blogging and posting on World First Facebook page  throughout his trip. Keep up to date with his journey by following his tweets 

For further enquiries contact:

nick.jones@worldfirst.com
+44(0)207-801-2383
http://www.worldfirst.com  

SOURCE World First UK Ltd.