Cycling challenge to help heroes

A party of 15 wounded, injured or sick soldiers and veterans are riding 423miles from Edinburgh to London to raise money and awareness for the forces charity.

Among them were Gaz Golightly, 31, of Spennymoor, County Durham, and Mickey Hall, 37, from Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Mr Golightly’s career as a vehicle specialist in the Royal Logistic Corps was cut short after he lost a leg in a road accident while driving back to barracks in Wiltshire, in 2002.

Mr Hall, a former Welsh Guard, was left paralysed from the waist down after an accident on an Army assault course. They are two of four making the journey on a hand bike.

Help for Heroes has helped Mr Golightly and Mr Hall cope with both physical injuries and emotional difficulties, largely by enabling them to take up sports.

TAKING A BREAK: Mickey Hall and Gaz Golightly

Together with several support riders and a back-up team the group left Edinburgh early on Tuesday (Tuesday, May 28).

Today the travelled from Bellingham, in Northumberland, through County Durham including Tow Law, Toft Hill and Piercebridge, before heading for Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, where they will stay overnight.

They will arrive in London on Saturday, June 2. Once there, they will join hundreds of other riders who have cycled from all over the UK and abroad to take part in a mass ride through the capital to help raise £1m for Help for Heroes.

Funds raised by Mr Golightly and Mr Hall’s team will go to Phoenix House, an Army-led personnel recovery and assessment centre at Catterick.