Cancer cause cycle fundraiser

Assistant operations manager, of the Next Customer Service team, Paul Sutton, set up the cycling machine challenge on-site at Armthorpe, in memory of his uncle David Wood, who died of the cancer in May.

He said that this type of cancer was less well known as others but was extremely aggressive.

He added: 'In August 2017, David was at my wedding and with no issues or symptoms.  In February he was diagnosed with a tumour the size of a tennis ball.  Three month's later, the tumour was the size of a watermelon and he passed away at St Catherine's Hospice, Balby in May.

As November the 10th was NET Cancer Awareness Day, I set up an exercise bike challenge for my colleagues in the Next call centre.'

He further added: 'Using an exercise bike, we decided we would travel the equivalent of the cycle route from John O'Groats to Land's End in around eight days. '

He said: 'We chose eight days because we have two shift patterns here and each team at Armthorpe works on a four on and a four off basis '“ so eight gave each team a four day stint at trying to get as far along the long route as possible.

'We eventually reached the fourth day and we are just about at Worcester (which is around 663 miles out of the 963 mile total). So what we decided to do is we are going to absolutely smash the target and have now set a new aim.

'Our new aim is to get to Land's End then turn around and start pedalling towards Dover. That would be a phenomenal 1,394 miles over an eight-day period, which is way in excess of the 963 miles we set out to do. We also have a Just Giving page set up, but most of our donations thus far have been into a tin so we need some online help to help to boost us forward.' Visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paul-sutton74 to donate.