2 brave local men will be riding a 100 miles this Saturday to raise money for the Hospice.

Graham Mitchell, aged 46 of Glen Maye and his friend, Andrew Wright, aged 30 of Kirk Michael have decided to replicate a mountainous stage of the Tour de France. The event will be simply called “Ride for Jack”. The ride, criss-crossing the island’s highest peaks will see them riding approximately 100 miles and will see them try to climb over 10,000 feet in a day. As they have decided to do this amazing feat this Saturday there won’t be time for any worthwhile training! This ride will be similar to the End2End race across the peaks of the Island.

The men have been touched by the story of a young boy called Jack, who at the age of 5, has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, atypical rhabdomyosarcoma recently. He and his family live on the Isle of Man.

Graham explained: “I have heard that Jack is a very brave little boy, and all his family and friends are proud of his fighting spirit.”

“I am sure this is a devastating time for his family and their family and friends want to support them so this is our way of doing something.”

This story has really touched us and has upset us so much that we feel compelled to do something very challenging to try to raise a bit of money for the Hospice Isle of Man in recognition of the fantastic work they do in cases like this.

We didn’t want to do something easy to raise money – in fact we want it to be extremely painful.

The men will start out on Saturday at 7am and should be finished by 5pm. To donate please visit their Just Giving page on http://www.justgiving.com/RideforJack.