Pedal power: Trustee Dave gears up for an 800 km fundraiser

It all started just over a year ago when to mark the charity's 25th anniversary Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store's Chair of Trustees John Sherbourne announced that he was organising a 25 kilometre fund-raising walk. Last month it was local runner Andrew Webster's turn to raise the bar by representing the Store in the 2012 London marathon. However, Dave Gladman a trustee of both L&MFS and St George's Crypt and two friends are gearing up for a quite extraordinary fundraising feat.

Next month Dave (62) will be setting off from his home in Moortown, Leeds to cycle an 800 kilometers route called The Camino. Beginning in south-west France and finishing at Santiago de Compestela in north-west Spain this ancient pilgrim route is not only long, it involves cycling over and/or through the Pyrenees.

As his training programme gathers pace Dave says, “Yes this is quite an adventure and I am really looking forwards to it. We have researched the route and there are at least two climbs of over twenty miles each both of which have gradients of one in four. But it’s not only distance and hills we have to worry about apparently it can snow at any time of the year on some of the high passes so it is going to be a real challenge, to say the least".

And even when Dave does complete the ride there will be precious little time to relax as he then faces the problem of how best to return to Bayonne to catch the fortnightly cycle bus back to the UK.

You can follow Dave's exploits in the saddle by going online and reading his blog at http://cryptcaminochallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ and of course you can sponsor either of his chosen charities at his Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/teams/davegladman