Musician is planning 450-km cycle ride and death-defying bungee jump, but only when his body - and his bike - have mended SOME might say Damien Phillips is quite accident prone. During training for a 450-kilometre charity cycle ride through Zambia, he has fallen off his bike, smashing both knees and, more importantly, buckling both wheels.

Yet he still plans to throw himself off the top of one of the world’s biggest waterfalls - Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe - in a bungee jump to celebrate the end of the mammoth ride.

Damien, 22, of Grange Park, Swindon, will be joining the Transaid Cycle Zambia Challenge 2009 for 10 days from May 7. He will be part of a team cycling 450km from Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, to Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia with Zimbabwe. The trip will be a mix of tarmac and off-road cycling through typical African villages.

Recently, he came a cropper while training for the challenge. But the Swindon technician is still determined to go ahead with it.

“They thought I had broken my leg and my boss took me to hospital, but I am okay,” he said.

“I am repairing the bike myself so until it is done I am training by doing 150 sit ups a day and running four miles.

“When we first get there we will get the bikes and equipment ready and then on the first cycling day do a gentle 60 miles.

“On the second day it’s 70 miles and on the third 85 miles, and so on.

“It is the chance of a lifetime. Doing a bungee jump off Victoria Falls is something to tell your kids about.”

Damien works as a technician at ATS Euromaster at Cheney Manor, rushing out to help truck drivers at the side of the road. It was through the firm that he had the chance to join the Transaid challenge.

“I was one of two picked to go from our company,” said Damien.

He has to raise £3,000 in sponsorship to go on the challenge - ATS in Swindon are paying half. Damien has already raised £700 and has until the end of February to come up with the rest.

To help, he is taking part in a charity “spin” at the Birmingham HQ of his firm, cycling all day on a static bike.

His other fundraising project is a charity gig featuring his band 3tickets2LA. Damien is the lead singer and guitarist and he is joined by Richard Webb and James Doran.

“This will be our first gig as 3tickets2LA and we play rock ‘n’ roll and indie style music,” he said.

The band play in aid of the Transaid Cycle Challenge on Friday at the 12 Bar in Westcott Place. Also on the bill are Energy Without The Sun, Blind Dogs For The Guides and Gaz Brookfield.

Tickets are £5, with 40 per cent of the takings going to Transaid. For more details call 01793 535713.

n ATS Euromaster chose Transaid as its charity because of its associations with transport. Funds raised by the cycle challenge will go towards Professional Driver Training Projects to be launched this year.

The object is to reduce the number of road crashes in Zambia, where accidents are the third highest cause of death after HIV/Aids and malaria.

This will be done by building up the training centres in partnership with the Industrial Training Centre in Lusaka and introducing internationally recognised standards for professional driver training.

Anyone who wants to sponsor Damien should call him on 07802 459076 or pop along to the gig. - flicky harrison