Nine cyclists will ride from Northampton to Amsterdam in aid of BacZac cancer charity

Nine cyclists are set to take on a 450 mile journey from Northampton to Amsterdam this week in aid of local cancer charity BacZac.

The cyclists will be accompanied by Jason Forskitt, the father of Zac Forskitt who sadly lost his life to a rare form of testicular cancer and a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia in 2016.

BacZac was set up in Zac’s honour with the long term goal of buying a respite home for cancer patients and their families to use.

Jason told the Chronicle & Echo about when his family was offered a short stay in Swanage following Zac’s funeral.

“Just for those five or six days, it took our minds off the grief so it was a big help for us and we would like to do the same for other families,” he said.

The cyclists - Shaun Botterill, Andy Baker, Mark Russell, Simon Moore, Caron Moore, Jason Inwood, Aaron Wiles, Sarah Kiernan and Gary Kierna - will set off from the Old Northamptonians Association on Billing Road at around 8.30am on Saturday, May 27. Accompanying support crew is Jason, Matthew Harper and Eileen Harper.

The group will ride through Epping, Folkestone, across the English Channel, Belgium and then the Netherlands before concluding their journey in Amsterdam - where Zac took his last trip abroad before being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 20.

It is expected that the cyclists will ride an average around 85 miles per day and reach Amsterdam by Wednesday May 31.

Fundraisers have accumulated £15,000 for this event so far but, if they are able to reach their ambitious £20,000 target, this will be a record-breaking amount for the BacZac charity.

BacZac has raised a mouth-dropping quarter of a million pounds from years of abseiling, completing marathons, skydiving, hosting golf days - you named it - since it was established in 2017.

This puts the charity on track to buy a respite home near Weymouth in the next couple of months - a goal six years in the making.

You can donate to BacZac’s fundraiser here.

Find out more about BacZac by visiting https://www.baczachislegacy.org/.