Six friends from Marshfield near Bath have cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats, raising almost £15,000 for the new cancer centre that will be built at the Royal United Hospital.
The team, ‘Marshfield Cycle’ took up the notorious challenge back in May and cycled close to 1,000 miles in nine days.
The sponsorship money raised has been donated to the hospital’s charity, The Forever Friends Appeal.
Tristan Barton, one of the cyclists and an Orthopedic Surgeon at the RUH said: “We did it – Mike Batty, Rhys Gwilliam, John Hardy, Jon Millar, Tom Day, Ian Price and I are delighted to be able to present a cheque for £14,860 to The Forever Friends Appeal.”
“We wanted to complete this challenge to support our local hospital – as a number of our relatives and close friends have been treated at the RUH over the years.
“The new cancer centre is an exciting project to support and we know how much it will help further improve local cancer services.
“The bike ride was extremely challenging both physically and mentally and required months of training and preparation.
“There were plenty of highs and lows, never ending up-hills and exhilarating downhills, but knowing that so many people had donated, we kept peddling to repay their generosity.”
As well as fundraising for the cause, the team was sponsored by local companies, including Marshfield Ice Cream, Graze, Bond’s Haulage, Player Layer, John Moore Sports, Charlotte Knight Osteopaths and Torq Energy Gels.
The team would like to thank everyone for the support they received from their sponsors, friends and family.
Maddy Jones, Senior Events Fundraiser, The Forever Friends Appeal said: “On behalf of the Appeal, we say a huge thank you and congratulations for not only completing such a huge physical challenge, but also for all of their hard work fundraising throughout 2018.
“As they’ve raised over £10,000 they are invited to our annual partners reception to receive their Community Partner Award in November.”
The Forever Friends Appeal has now raised £8.9m towards the cost of the new Cancer Centre which will be a pioneering centre, taking a holistic approach to produce a highly beneficial healing environment for patients and their families.
For information about fundraising and the cancer care campaign, visit The Forever Friends Appeal’s website at: www.foreverfirendsappeal.co.uk.
