Cycle trio’s charity ride to honour pal
THREE fundraisers will cycle 125 miles from one football ground to another and back again in memory of their friend who lost a brave battle with cancer.
Ben Woods, Jonathon Fowler, 36, and Andrew Threlfall, 38, will pedal from Accrington Stanley’s Crown Ground to Liverpool’s famous Anfield.
The journey, which includes biking back in the same day, will take place on Saturday, August 11, and is in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice in Preston. It is part of a huge fundraising drive in memory of Leon Callon, who died of stomach cancer in March this year aged just 36.
Ben, a mechanic from Rishton, said: “We are setting off at 4am to get some miles done while it is still cool as it will be tough. The terrain on a canal path will be rough and rutted and if one of us fell in, while it would be funny, it would ruin the day. We will have sore legs but we don’t want to let Leon down and the first thing we will do when we finish is have a beer and toast him.”
The journey is a step up for the trio as last year they did the same distance along the Leeds-Liverpool canal but took two days.
On that occasion Leon, of Rishton, joined them for one of the days even though he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer 10 months earlier.
This time football grounds were picked as the destinations as Leon was a massive fan of the sport, although he supported Manchester United.
He undertook a lot of fundraising himself before passing away and spent the last two weeks of his life at St Catherine’s Hospice.
Since then family and friends have picked up the baton and a staggering £55,000 has been raised for the hospice under the banner of Team Callon.
Ahead of the latest fundraising Ben, Jonathon and Andrew, both from Blackburn, have been training for three months and are now cycling up to 70 miles a day.
Ben, 33, said: “Leon was a big part of it last year even though he was going through chemotherapy. He put everything into doing things for charity and he is the type of character that after last year wanted us to do the same thing in a day. He was the life and soul of everything we did so it will be hard doing it without him but he will be willing us on.”
Anyone wishing to donate can visit www.justgiving. com/ companyteams/LeonCallon.