Hucknall man's epic charity bike ride set to raise close to £10,000

Darryl Claypole, 70, set out to take on the challenge in aid of the Brain Tumour Research charity after his son Tom, 40, was diagnosed with a serious brain tumour last year.

The challenge was a static bike ride and took place throughout July at the Nuffield Health Club in Chesterfield.

Darryl rode every day and he was joined by an army of friends, family and supporters, including Tom, people from the charity and many of his old footballing friends from his many years involved with teams like Hucknall Town and Carlton Town.

The ride has already seen them break through the £7,500 barrier in terms of money raised and with the addition of gift aid and many more donations still to come in, Darryl believes the final total could well pass £10,000.

He said: “It was absolutely brilliant, it was a long challenge and it was great that I got so many people to come and support us.

"In the middle of the ride, on July 18, we had Tom’s wedding too, so it’s been a memorable month.

“On the final day, we had bottles of champagne to celebrate the end of the ride and thank the people from Nuffield Health Club who have been fantastic, it was just a really great family and team effort.”

During the month, riding briefly turned to walking as Darryl and the team headed to Merthyr Town FC in Wales who were doing their annual walk from the Aneurin Bevin Stones – an iconic spot where the founder of the NHS used to speak to people – in Tredegar in Merthyr and all the money raised this year is for Brain Tumour Research and will be put on to Darryl’s Justgiving page.

He continued: “Carlton Town are going to be using the pink football shirts to sponsor Brain Tumour Research and the surgeon who actually performed Tom’s operation and the nurses are going to doing the London landmarks marathon next year and all that money raised will go towards the fund too.”

And the challenges don’t stop there with Darryl's wife Sylvia doing a wingwalk in Lincolnshire later this month, while Darryl himself is going down to his former club Swindon Town for their game with another of his former clubs, Rochdale, on August 20 to do a bit for the charity then.

He continued: “It’s really been a wonderful coming together of people and we’ve had so many people donating and so much interest shown right across the board and we’ve heard so many inspirational stories about people with brain tumours.

"We’ve got lots of ideas going forward about how we can help the charity, we’re thinking about black tie dinners and a penalty shoot-out competition across three counties and we’re hoping the final will be hosted by Chesterfield and Notts County when they play each other in January.

"And the latest one is we’re looking into the potential of a virtual row across the Atlantic which is 4,700 kilometres.

"So we’ve got plenty we’re thinking about so we can help this fantastic charity even more.”