Northampton to Amsterdam bike ride raises thousands to help charity buy dream respite home for cancer patients

Nine people have raised £21,000 - and counting - for local cancer charity ‘BacZac’ by taking on the arduous challenge of cycling from Northampton to Amsterdam in four days.

The BacZac charity was set up in honour 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.

The thousands raised by the charity cycle ride will enable BacZac to achieve their long term goal of buying a respite home near the coast for cancer patients and their families to use.

Zac’s father, Jason Forskitt, told the Chronicle & Echo: “It was very good, we finished on Wednesday last week and it was just excellent, it could not have gone better.

“The weather was lovely - on the third day, we had strong headwinds, which was hard for all of them, but they all did great.”

The cyclists - Shaun Botterill, Andy Baker, Mark Russell, Simon Moore, Caron Moore, Jason Inwood, Aaron Wiles, Sarah Kiernan and Gary Kierna - set off from the Old Northamptonians Association in Billing Road on Saturday, May 27.

Jason, Matthew Harper and Eilee Harper joined the riders as their support crew.

In just four days, the team embarked on a strenuous 450 mile bike ride through Epping, Folkestone, across the English Channel, Belgium and then the Netherlands before concluding their journey in Amsterdam on Wednesday, May 31.

Jason said: “It is like being on a different planet when you are in Belgium and Holland. There are no potholes and the cycle lanes are fantastic. They are proper big cycle lanes. At the end of it, Amsterdam was just bikes everywhere. It was amazing to see them all.”

When asked if there were any bumps on the way, Jason did say one of the cyclists had a fall and hurt their wrist on the second day but they “soldiered on.”

On raising the charity’s record-breaking £21,000, Jason said: “We more than surpassed what we were hoping for, really.

“All the headaches of planning it, obviously, you forget all that when you think wow that’s a hell of a figure, especially with how things are with everyone at the moment.”

BacZac’s fundraising efforts over the years have accumulated well over a quarter of a million pounds to date, meaning the charity can now achieve its ultimate goal that has been six years in the making - buying a respite home for cancer patients and their families near Weymouth.

Jason previously 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.

If all goes to plan, BacZac will own a respite home by August and allow families to stay from the beginning of 2024.

You can still donate to BacZac’s fundraiser here.

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