FOUR CHARD residents have completed a gruelling cycle ride from London to Paris to raise money for St Margaret’s Hospice.

Max Cranage, of Max Cranage Personal Training, along with Kylie Smolden, Wesley King and Liam Tredwell, travelled 325 miles in four days.

The four fundraisers set off from London on Friday, May 13 at 6am, before cycling on average for seven hours a day in the cross-channel challenge. They all managed to finish on Monday, May 16, and even had time to pose for a picture under the iconic Eiffel Tower.

Max said: “We cycled from Trafalgar Square to Paris which clocked up 325 miles over the weekend.

“We’ve raised between £1300 and £1500 for St Margaret’s Hospice, and we still have donations coming in now via our JustGiving page which is at £800, plus we have had sponsor forms at my gym.

“We have been training and doing Sportive’s since December 2015 in preparation for the event. Each day saw us cycle for five to seven hours depending on the terrain.

“We had a support vehicle and driver who did the event voluntarily, Zara Aitken.

“She also acted as our photographer for the trip.

“We planned the event so that we would have longer rides at the start so we could finish with a short ride of 50 miles into Paris on the final day so we could get some nice photos and enjoy Paris for half a day.

“We have a really supportive customer base who got behind us all with donations and well wishes over the internet whilst we were away which was great.

“This was our second charity event this year as we also ran a 12 hour indoor cycling event earlier in the year and raised more than £2000 for a collection of charities so it was nice to take it up a step and do a serious endurance event for another great cause.”

If you didn’t donate the committed foursome, you still can by visiting LondontoParis-StMargaretsHospiceCare.co.uk.

People will be able to donate through the page until May 31.