Northampton newsagent will take on 165-mile coast to coast cycling challenge in just one day

Andrew Cruden and his team of friends will be pedalling from Whitehaven, Cumbria, to Robin Hood Bay, North Yorkshire, in just 16 hours in an all-out effort to raise £10,000 for Crohn's and Colitis UK.

They are taking on the self-imposed 165-mile feat after Andrew's son was diagnosed with colitis in December.

Andrew, who runs the Mace newsagents in Northampton Market Square, said: "The target of £10,000 is enough to fund one year of treatment for someone with Crohn's.

"My son was diagnosed with colitis after months of just the most horrendous pain, and the mum of one of the team member's has Crohn's. We all felt we had to do something.

"I've been training since December. I've never done this before. It's been hard but we'll get there."

Andrew will team up with eight friends to tackle the route, which will climb to 2,000 ft above sea level through the Lake District and pass through three national parks.

They will start off at 3.30am on July 28 and will cycle from coast to coast.

They will meet family members at legs of the journey for food checkpoints before crossing the finish line near Whitby at around 8pm the same day.

In preparation, Andrew has already cracked the 59-mile Tour of Cambridgeshire cycling challenge and raised £380 for MacMillan Cancer.

Andrew said: "I was a little under-confident about everything before that, but I did the tour in four hours and felt good about it.

"It was very hard in places but thinking about what I was doing it for kept me going.

"I'm feeling very confident about the coast to coast now. We're all going to look out for each other and finish together, then go for a pint after we're done.

Andrew has also set up a JustGiving page to raise his share of the £10,000 goal.