5 Guys, 1000 miles, £30,000

The Pedal de Alps team who cycled from Chorley to Nice last August to raise funds for Derian House - specialist children's hospice in Lancashire - were delighted to recently hand over a cheque for more than thirty thousand pounds to their chosen charity to officially bring to a close this incredible project.

The team of five friends accompanied by team principal Nick Owen and driven by the sad loss of Paul and Alison Dixon's fourteen week old son Harry back in 2006, pedalled over one thousands miles via the Alps in the summer of 2013 to raise monies for a fantastic facility that their family benefitted from in their time of need and that relies heavily on donations each year to keep its doors open.

Speaking about this amazing achievement Paul Dixon said. "Obviously it goes with out saying that the loss of Harry remains a difficult thing, but is something as a family we are learning to deal with. To have had the opportunity to be able to give something back to Derian House, which as a family we owe so much feels incredibly special. I would like to thank everyone who has supported and donated to this project, as to have raised over thirty thousand pounds is simply more than we could have ever dreamed of."

Roya Armstrong from the fund raising team at Derian House was on hand to accept the final cheque and said. " We are truly grateful to Paul and his team for their huge efforts and for raising so much money, money that will make a real difference to the day to day running of the hospice. The amount that the Pedal de Alps group have raised is phenomenal. To think they have raised over thirty thousand pounds really is mind blowing, and for us at the hospice, it is just so inspirational. Fundraising can be challenging given today's climate and in 2013 there were only a very small handful of groups doing similar activities who raised that kind of amount, so you can understand why we really appreciate all the hard work the team has put in to making this happen and we hope that it will inspire others to take up their own fund raising challenges in the future."

To learn more about Derian House - please visit www.derianhouse.co.uk - where donations to this great cause can still be made.



Pictured left to right - back row - Paul Dixon, Dougie Lampkin, Jake Miller, James Lampkin, Woody Hole and Nick Owen - front row - Freddie and Charlie Dixon