Plucky amputee veterans finish 1,000-mile cycle to support MND

A group of ten amputee veterans has ridden from John o’ Groats to Land’s End in just 13 days.

The team completed the 1,000-mile cycle challenge to raise awareness of motor neurone disease after their team-mate John Chart was diagnosed with the condition last year.

The veterans cycled 80 miles a day through a heatwave at the beginning of the challenge and torrential rain at the end.

The group had a number of celebrity endorsements along the way, including from Sarah Ferguson, duchess of York, and Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne.

They have so far raised more than £14,500 for both motor neurone disease and charity Pilgrim Bandits, which organises gruelling expeditions for injured service and emergency personnel, many of whom are amputees or have PTSD, and who helped organise the ride.

A firefighter for 26 years, Mr Chart, from Beckenham, Kent, said he was “devastated” by his diagnosis but determined to fight on.

The 49-year-old used a specially-adapted tandem throughout the challenge and was joined by people along the way, including his 14-year-old son Christopher and wife Arlene.

Mr Chart said: “Motor neurone disease shuts down your muscular system until you are literally cocooned inside your own body, your brain is still compos mentis but you can’t move, you can’t breathe, you can’t eat, you can’t speak and your body eventually will just close down until you sadly pass away.”

Among those on the expedition was Pilgrim Bandits patron and former lancebombardier Ben Parkinson, one of the most seriously injured to survive the battlefield while serving in Afghanistan in 2006.

Picture: PA. The veterans, with supporters, at Land’s End.