Three Dorset residents are cycling from north Dorset to the south of Spain in June to raise money for Help for Heroes.
The trio – Jeremy Gibson, Myles Wheaton-Green and Luke Graham – are also cycling for Canine Partners and intend on raising at least £10,000. Help for Heroes is a charity for wounded soldiers and Canine Partners trains dogs that can be used by disabled people.
Mr Wheaton-Green who works at the Blandford Leisure Centre said: “We get a lot of people from Blandford Camp come to our gym and I’d like to show support for them.”
“A lot of soldiers come back injured and it stops them from being able to go back into the army. So [this is] showing support, saying thank you for all they are doing. [It can] get them back in the gym to keep them fit and try to find another career after that.”
They expect to cover the 1,300 miles journey in two weeks by pedalling around 120 miles a day.
Mr Wheaton-Green added: “Canine partner is a more local charity. That’s quite a good charity helping disabled people. They train up the dogs to answer doors, go shopping. It’s quite close to the hearts of many people in our local area.”
Mr Graham said: “The two charities are sort of interlinked because it’s sort of helping people. We are not the fittest guys out there and we are doing this long journey. We are trying to say if you have lost a limb or something, you can get back out there, climb back on top of the horse sort of thing.”
They will leave from Hazelbury Bryan on 8 June, catching a ferry from Poole to Cherbourg and then cycling down through France to Murcia in Spain.
