Saddle up to raise cash

I am calling on people to join the fight against heart disease by signing up to the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) 54-mile London to Brighton Bike Ride on June 18, 2017.

As Europe’s oldest charity bike ride, the event attracts tens of thousands of participants from all corners of the UK each year, including people from the North East.

With 12 weeks to go to the event we are only half way to raising our target of £3million to fund life-saving heart research so we are encouraging as many people to sign up as possible.

I am also pleased to say that for the first time in the event’s history the use of electronic bikes will be permitted this year.

I hope this will encourage more riders of all cycling abilities to get in the saddle and take on the challenge.

Families, friends and colleagues can enjoy a fun day out together while cycling through some of the South East’s most picturesque counties.

Our London to Brighton Bike Ride is an achievable challenge for all cyclists; from the newbies to the experienced; the cautious to the confident, the fast to the fall behinds and both the solo riders and the team players.

Heart and circulatory disease still kills one in four and affects seven million people in the UK.

In the North East alone about 6,800 people die each year because of it, tearing families apart.

The BHF will continue fighting against these devastating conditions until we live in a world where nobody dies prematurely because of them.

The event has been running for more than 40 years now and in that time 814,000 cyclists have raised more than £65million for our life saving research.

Thanks to our research huge progress has been made in saving lives, and the number of deaths from heart and circulatory disease in the UK has halved since the 1960s.

However, there is still much more we urgently need to do, which is why I’d like to urge readers to join the fight today.

You can easily sign up for the London to Brighton Bike Ride, sponsored by Tesco and Jaffa, by visiting bhf. org.uk/L2B

Look forward to seeing you there. Shonali Rodrigues, Head of Events at the British Heart Foundation