A FINANCIAL adviser from Swindon is using pedal power to raise thousands for a charity close to her heart.

Alice Douglass, an independent financial adviser at Highworth-based Grosvenor Consultancy, will cycle over three hundred miles to Paris with three friends to raise money for Neuroblastoma UK.

With the trip planned on August 15 Alice has already managed to beat her £1,800 target and raised around £2,500 through coffee mornings, a silent auction and a tombola.

She chose the children’s cancer charity to remember her cousin Helen who died age three from the disease thirty years ago.

“I am overwhelmed by the support from local businesses," said Alice.

"With generous donations to both the silent auction and tombola as well as the people who baked cakes and came to support the coffee morning."

“This and others’ generous sponsorship will keep me focused during my training and push through the pain when my legs are screaming at me on the ride to Paris in August.

“Cycling is new to me. It’s the first time I have been on a racing bike since I was 13, but I am training hard and getting lots of support, especially from my husband Justin.”

Alice will be joined by close friends from home Kate Thompson and Katie Barber, from Nottingham, and Jenna Swift from Leeds.

The route is also in memory to Kate’s husband Richard, who died from cancer last February and had ridden the London to Paris ride when he was alive.

The group will cycle around 70 miles a day and finish by cycling into Paris up the Champs-Elysees, before going around the Arc de Triomphe and finish overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

“I’m hoping that my husband is going to be there with a bottle of champagne,” Alice told the Adver.

“Hopefully we’ll drink champagne and go out for a nice meal and then I’m going to have a few days in France and have a little holiday.

“I’m looking forward to that bit.”

Donations to Alice's ride can be made at https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/alicedouglass.