A PETERSFIELD man is cycling from the town to Paris to raise funds for the charity CLIC Sargent.
Chris Salmon, of Longdown, is planning to complete the 250 miles in a single day on his own on Saturday, May 7.
He will cycle 54 miles to Newhaven in time to catch the 9am ferry to Dieppe. The ferry will arrive in Dieppe at 2pm, which will give Chris ten hours to cycle the 110 miles to Paris. He plans to finish under the Eiffel Tower.
Chris said: “I’ve always thought about doing some crazy charity fundraiser.
“This really will be a challenge for me as I had never done any cycling before I began training for this event four months ago.”
The cause that Chris is cycling for is close to his heart, as CLIC Sargent helped his brother, Matt, during his cancer treatment. Chris is now hoping to give something back.
He said: “CLIC Sargent are an amazing charity who provide vital emotional, practical and financial support to young cancer patients and families during and after treatment.
“They are my chosen charity as they provided my brother with a lot of support during his treatment and I want to raise as much funding and awareness for the charity as possible in return.”
Chris has set himself an ambitious fundraising target of £5,000, and as part of his training he has been doing rides outside the Petersfield and Haslemere stores of the Sports Locker in an attempt to increase publicity and raise extra cash.
“My only aim from this is to change one child’s life for the better,” said Chris.
“I would like to thank the people of Petersfield and Haslemere for donating and the Sports Locker and Cycleworks for their generous sponsorship.”
Chris has raised more than £1,900 so far, and anyone who would like to make a donation should visit www.justgiving.com/24hourstoparis