COVERING 125 miles in two days, a group of keen cyclists from Crediton pedalled back home from Lands End raising £2,000 for Hospiscare by doing so.

This was only half of the £4,000 raised by three members of the Mark Masonic Lodge at Crediton - Worshipful Brothers Bob Adams, Ian Lanyon and Peter Coleman - and four friends who did the work, the rest of their fundraising being for The Mark Benevolent Fund 2016.

This is supporting the charity “Hope for Tomorrow” and the aim is to provide the charity with sufficient funds to buy 10 mobile Chemo Therapy units for use by people in rural areas throughout the country.

They said their venture would not have been possible without the support of The Bike Shed at Crediton and its owner Mike Sanders who provided and drove one of his vans.

He took the cycles and riders to the start, leaving Crediton at 6am on the Saturday. Two kind wives went with them throughout the ride, providing food and drink along the way.

At the end of their first day, the group called at the RAF Memorial Museum at Davidstow where they were given refreshments and a cheque.

Before they left next morning free refreshments were again provided. After their 52-mile ride, they got back to the Masonic Lodge at Crediton at 3pm, where a feast of cakes awaited them.

They handed over a big £2,000 cheque at The Bike Shed, Crediton, on Saturday morning to Lin Stapleton from the local fundraising group for Exeter Hospiscare and Celia Wilkinson from Exeter Hospiscare.

Lin explained that the Crediton fundraising group was one of several local teams whose fundraising was separate from that of the Hospiscare shops.

She said that money raised locally was used for Hospiscare services, supporting the nurses and the families of patients.

Lin’s commitment to Hospiscare goes back to its beginning in Exeter when her family were so glad of the support, when the charity was funding two nurses. She added that the name had been chosen because Isca is the Roman name for Exeter, a point people tended to overlook.

“Our local hospice with Hospiscare is not joined with any other, each is individual. We have to raise more than £5 million a year to run the services. We have three day centres plus the in-patient unit and 28 community nurses across Exeter, Mid and East Devon,” she said.

“The shops help to fund that £5 million, but the support teams such as ours help to fund the services. We are 100 per cent local,” Lin added.

She said how grateful they were to the Masonic cyclists for their support and enthusiasm.

Sue Read