A volunteer for the Prospect Hospice warehouse in Wroughton has raised almost £1,000 after completing a 300-mile cycle.

John Davidson volunteers at the warehouse on Mondays and often cycles the 11-mile commute.

To help support the charity during the coronavirus crisis, the 70-year-old decided to cycle this route 26 times, nearly 300 miles, and even finished off with an extra 26-mile ride to fit in with the 2.6 Challenge theme.

John said: “Donations are still coming in and we’re looking at about £1,000, which is great.

“In some ways it was harder than I thought it was going to be.

“I do cycle there regularly, it’s a normal journey for me. Twenty-six days in a row is a bit of a challenge but I thought it was a bit tame so I put 26lbs extra weight on me and the bike to make it more of a challenge

“I’ve probably lost four or five pounds over the course of it.”

When John started the challenge government regulations meant that he had to keep his daily exercise to one hour.

He added: “The spirit of the thing was that you had to stick to the government guidelines for exercise, so I tried doing it within an hour which just about covered it and towards the end I was doing it in about 50 minutes which isn’t bad for my age.

“The extra weight was more of a strain than I thought it would be.

“I had to adjust it. I had 26lbs in the rucksack and my back didn’t like it so I put a carrier on the bike to take some of the weight, obviously I didn’t want to get a bad back, that wouldn’t have helped me at all.”

When it comes to the total number of donations, John is unsure how much he actually raised because of the variety of sites he was fundraising on.

He explained: “Some people have donated through Facebook so I can’t see that amount but on the Virgin Money Giving site is about £800.

“And a friend told me he has sent a £50 cheque direct to Prospect.

“Hopefully we’ll have around £1,000 to be able to give to the charity.”

John’s total on his Virgin Money site stands at £876 and you can still donate by visiting uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnDavidson25.

To people that have been donating, John said: “I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has donated.

"The charity will have a shortfall of about £2m which they have to raise so they’re desperate for funds.

“My friends and family have been tremendous. Donations are still coming in.”