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| Will Sanderson (second from left) with the rest of the cycling team |
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Six Canford pupils have been training hard recently in preparation for a 1157km sponsored bike ride in July from Calais in the north of France to Perpignan, close to the border of Spain. Sixth Former Will Sanderson decided to take on the challenge and enlisted the help of friends Ed Durkin, Hugo King-Oakley, Justin Owers, Tom Jenvey and Jamie Bodnar-Horvath. The group will be raising money for Leukaemia Busters, the UK based children's leukaemia research charity, and in memory of Will’s cousin, who died of leukaemia at the age of two.
Speaking before a training session Will answered a few questions about the bike ride:
• What made you decide to do the sponsored cycle?
I think it was mainly because I wanted to do something challenging, rewarding and also something that would not just last a couple of hours. We chose Leukaemia Busters because my cousin died 10 years ago and my family have been involved with raising money for them since. So I thought it was about time I did something as well.
Unfortunately, the Leukaemia Busters charity lost a lot of research in the recent earthquake in Italy so they need help now more than ever. Raising awareness is also so important; on average 59000 people a year die from leukaemia and it is Britain’s most common childhood cancer.
• How has the training schedule been?
We have been training when we can but mostly we've just been concentrating on keeping our fitness high as school work will take priority until our exams are over. The total distance of the bike ride is 1157km, so we should average about 115km a day - which should take us about 8 hours.....hopefully.
• What do you think will be the toughest part of the challenge?
I think that by the fourth or fifth day we'll all begin to get very tired which will affect energy levels, performance and, of course, our emotions. We are cycling this distance in mid July when temperatures in France will be at their highest, making it all the more challenging for us. I think how we cope with the tiredness and the whole experience could be quite interesting to say the least.
• Do you have a fundraising target you’d like to reach?
I know we're all looking forward to it, personally I can’t wait to go, and I know some of the others feel the same way. We don't have a set target; we feel that any money we can raise will help make a huge difference to sufferers of leukaemia, so we are doing all we can to prepare and raise much needed funds.
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To find out more or donate online, please visit Will's website: www.justgiving.com/calais-perpignan
www.leukaemiabusters.org.uk
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