Yorkshire firefighters aim to ride London-Edinburgh in 28 hours

Four firefighters from Doncaster are planning to ride from London to Edinburgh in just 28 hours to raise money for Sheffield’s Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity. The hospital is one of only three dedicated to cancer in the UK.

The quartet – Tony Crossfield, Danny Nortcliffe, Alex Marland and Rob Halliwell - have been in training for the ride since before Christmas, and will each be rising the entire route, rather than as a relay.

The ride, which begins on July 25, starts at Buckingham Palace and finishes at Edinburgh Castle – a nice uphill kick for tired legs, there – and on the way the team will stop off at The Dome leisure centre in Doncaster, where they are doing much of their training. According to the route planner on the AA website, that would take around ten hours in a car, avoiding motorways and ignoring stops.

According to the Doncaster Free Press, the foursome are cycling up to 250 miles a week as part of their preparation, with Tony Crosfield saying that training has being going “pretty well,” and that “the longest ride to date is a 150 mile round trip to Filey and we have a 200 mile training ride planned for next month.”

He added: "It will be a real challenge especially if the summer weather is here but we're all very excited about the trip, and will hopefully raise plenty of money for this very worthy cause."

Colleagues will provide logistical support during the ride, and Lyndsey Raynor, a fundraiser for Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, said: "We really admire the group and we wish them all luck. To have the support from members of the public is invaluable and means we can continue funding vital cancer research."

A page has been set up on the charity website Just Giving to allow donations to be made, and it can be found here.