Teacher raises thousands pedalling for staff at city hospital

A TEACHER whose “selfless” wife works as a nurse at University Hospital Coventry has pedalled his heart out for NHS staff in a virtual Lands End to John O’groats challenge.

Ross Chadwick, a maths and economics teacher at Ashlawn School in Rugby, conquered the 983 miles in 11 days to raise funds for workers in the Intensive Care Unit, who are on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ross, who is still accepting donations on his Gofundme page, even took a detour via the hospital itself. The stay-athome athlete accomplished the feat in 53 hours and six minutes on an indoor turbo trainer using the virtual training app Zwift.

Ross’s biggest spur of inspiration is his wife, Georgia, an intensive care nurse at the hospital in Walsgrave.

He said: “My wife, along with all her colleagues, do a fantastic, selfless job going to work, caring for our loved ones and saving lives in the weeks ahead. It’s a scary thought, and not one I’d be looking forward to, but I know they do their very best every day.

“I wanted to show, in some small way, how much we all appreciate every single thing that our NHS heroes are doing for us all right now.”

He added: “It has been overwhelming to receive such wonderful support from colleagues, parents and students from Ashlawn School as well as family and friends across our local community - we want to raise as much money as we can.

“Every penny raised will go towards a big ‘thank you’ to the ICU staff once this coronavirus crisis is over. I’m not sure at this stage exactly ‘what’ this thank you will be, but I’m relying on my wife to tell me exactly what everyone in ICU would appreciate the most, both for themselves and their patients.

“I will, of course, let you know what we buy. Thanks very much in advance for your support, it really is appreciated.”

Ross has also been supporting the national response to the Covid-19 crisis by looking after the children of key workers at the school.

He has so far raised, £3,400 towards his £3,500 goal. After completing the challenge at the weekend, he wrote on the page: “It’s been an amazing two weeks - and completely unexpected from my point of view. I have finally learned how to use Facebook a bit (!), learned how to do a ‘live stream’ from my laptop, and learned that there is definitely a limit to how long a human backside can sit on a saddle!!! It’s been great.”

Ross is still asking for donations, however big or small.