Hollesley cyclist, 86, to take part in Ride and Stride event

Helen Lewis, from Hollesley and a climate ambassador for the Women’s Institute, hopes her experience will inspire others to cycle more and drive less.

Ms Lewis took part in the very first Suffolk Churches Bike Ride, now renamed Ride and Stride to include walkers, in 1982.

This year's 40 mile route should be no problem for the 86-year-old who cycled some 200 miles from Inverness to Orkney earlier this summer. 

She said: "I enjoy cycling because it means I’m not using the car. I have a car in the garage but I use it as little as possible on my daily trips for shopping and so on.

"They do say most car journeys are about two miles - it would be a great thing if instead of doing that people were able to cycle."

Helen's charity bike rides have included a 400-mile trip from Hollesley to Looe in Cornwall, and around 1,000 miles from Land’s End to John O’ Groats.

The Lands End trip, with her late husband John, raised £2,500 for Kalahari Bushmen after a spell working in Botswana through the British Council, while the ride to Cornwall and a further trip to Iona raised £10,000 for the Lin Berwick Trust, which provides holiday accommodation for people with disabilities.

This year’s Ride and Stride event will start at Bawdsey, passing through Alderton, Ramsholt, Shottisham and Sutton before stopping at six or seven churches in Woodbridge.

Other villages on the route include Melton, Ufford, Eyke, Tunstall and possibly Chillesford and Wantisden before finishing with Boyton and Hollesley.

Over the years the bike ride has raised more than £5 million and has made grants to more than 700 churches. 

“The Churches bike ride has been a wonderful thing, and also very healthy and good for people," said Ms Lewis.

The event will take place on Saturday, September 14.

Half the money raised goes to the local church of the participant’s choice and half goes to the Historic Churches Trust.