Cycling novices complete 258-mile trek from Sheffield to Taunton to raise cash for veteran with motor neurone disease

The group of six men, comprised of: Jack Huckstepp; Josh Ransom; Tom Vickers; Dave Slater; Lewis Nicholson and Ben Hetherington, took part in the challenge earlier this month, when they split the mammoth trek over three days.

Their aim is to raise as much money as possible for former Sergeant Major, Simon Ransom, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) last Christmas, and has experienced a rapid decline in his health since then.

MND is a rare condition that affects the brain and nerves, and while some people do live with it for many years, it eventually results in death.

Simon is Jack Huckstepp’s uncle-in-law, and explaining why he wanted to take part in the challenge, Jack said: “He’s served in Northern Ireland; Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s always worked to serve others, so we wanted to do something for him.”

"He’s been diagnosed with MND upper and lower, and I think people are usually diagnosed with one or the other so it’s quite severe...at Christmas he could walk into a room,” said Jack, who is headteacher of Brook House Junior School in School Road, Beighton.

Jack said Simon is now completely reliant upon a wheelchair and ‘has to be fed, has to be transferred from his chair to bed’ and has taken voice recordings in preparation for his condition worsening.

Simon is orignally from Sheffield but moved to Taunton, Somerset when his career brought him to the area, and the group thought it would be fitting to cycle from Sheffield to Taunton in his honour.

Jack said none of the group are ‘cycling mad’ and the longest distance that any of the six men had previously attempted was a 15-mile ride along the Monsall Trail.

They all had to buy bikes especially for the fundraiser.

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And so, the group definitely had their work cut out for them when they embarked upon the challenge on August 5.

Jack said it was very gruelling, adding: “A few of us fell off along the way. We tried our best to plan the route, but coming across busier roads and not being used to cycling meant we had to change the route and ended up doing 20 miles more than we needed to on certain days.”

The group has raised around £900, between two fundraising pages, and Jack said the group has been taken aback by the generosity people have shown, both to Simon and to the fundraisers themselves which has resulted in them smashing their original target of £200.

Keepmoat Homes and Fellas barbers have both provided the group with things they need, such as cycling clothes, while other people have aso given them money to cover the cost of the hotels they stayed in during the course of their three-day expedition.

"I’d like to thank all of our friends and family for supporting us and for everyone’s generosity, it’s made us all quite emotional.”

A specially adapted car is among the things that the money raised for Simon will go towards, and to make a donation, please visit: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/S6tooTA1?utm_term=8gZQRnmnr&fbclid=IwAR0fad9MF33eESkCH5P-LLRhdX5Y2iHLTBZ1zwLPqyUIEgpazBiufrhNW3E

The fundraising page will be open until August 31, 2022.