AN 80-year-old grandfather has started his 800-mile mission to cycle the length of the country to raise cash for a charity which provided his ill grandson with a once-in-a-life-time trip.

Denis Hedges, of Old Town, is cycling from Lands End to John O Groats to raise money for the charity Make-A-Wish, who provided his grandson, Tom Hyde, 13, with a trip to Florida when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma two years ago.

The youngster has now recovered from the illness so Denis decided it was a good time to show his appreciation to the charity.

The pensioner left Lands End at 3pm on Saturday. He went via St Just before arriving in Hayle, where he spent the night at his sister-in-law’s home. “It’s very pretty around here,” said Denis. “For tea we had a Cornish pasty. The weather has been good so far. The first day was quite short – it was only around 20 miles.”

Yesterday, he cycled 83 miles in five hours 50 minutes, ending at Okehampton.

“It’s good to get that out of the way,” said Denis.

“There were some heavy rain showers. I had to shelter through one of them because there was quite a lot of road spray. I’m feeling good though, everything is going well.”

So far Denis has collected around £1,000 for the charity. To support him visit www.justgiving.com/denishedges