Charity Cyclists To Show Their Pedal Power During Two Epic Challenges

Students from Newcastle University taking part in two epic charity bike rides to raise £10,000 for national blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan have received sponsorship and support from Irwin Mitchell’s Newcastle office.

The law firm is backing more than 80 cyclists and support drivers from student volunteer group Newcastle Marrow by funding the team’s cycling shirts. The students have also gained support from Gosforth-based M Steel Cycles who will be lending their expertise during the first part of their challenge.

The first bike ride in March will see 70 fundraisers cycle the famous Coast to Coast (C2C) route, covering 136 miles in two days, from the west coast town of Whitehaven to Newcastle and onto the east coast of Tynemouth. The second ride will be an even longer route, the ‘infamous’ Land’s End to John O’Groats route, a 960 mile challenge in 14 days for 14 cyclists.

John Davis, the regional managing partner at Irwin Mitchell’s Newcastle office, said:  "We are really proud to be supporting the students in these cycling challenges for Antony Nolan because it’s such a fantastic charity and one that really makes a massive difference to the thousands of people who need matching to bone marrow and tissue donations to save their lives.

“Both events are such inspiring challenges and we wish the teams good luck in their fundraising efforts. We are looking forward to receiving regular updates about how they get on and hopefully the weather will be on their side and punctures kept to a minimum!”

There are currently almost 1,600 people in the UK waiting for a blood stem cell transplant, which is usually their last hope of survival in the fight against blood cancer. Anthony Nolan runs a register of donors willing to donate their blood stem cells, or bone marrow, to people with blood cancers such as leukaemia or lymphoma.

It costs £100 to add each new donor to the register so fundraising events are vitally important to help Anthony Nolan give more people with blood cancer the chance of life.

Rebecca Lynn, President of Newcastle Marrow, said: “As far as we know, this is going to be the UK’s largest Coast to Coast cycle ride ever attempted for charity.  We are working incredibly hard to organise these cycle rides which are going to be great fun.  Physically, we are asking a lot from these students. It will push them very hard but we have begun to organise training rides to get people in shape.

“The rides are a wonderful way to get people involved in this cause and we have been overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to do the rides.  We currently have 20 people on the waiting list for the coast to coast challenge.”