Pink Pub to Paris superhero riders raise £33,000 and counting for Snowdrop

And having raised in excess of £33,000 so far, the group will be cycling around Chichester tomorrow (Saturday) with their sights now set on raising a whopping £40,000 for the Sussex Snowdrop Trust.

The 16 friends who are taking part are all from the local area and will be cycling from the Royal Oak in Bognor, known as the Pink Pub, to Paris on June 16.

As if the near 200 miles isn’t challenging enough, the group will do it in just two days, wearing full superhero fancy dress and on bikes they have bought for a maximum of £25 each.

“We’re not going to be hanging about, we’re going to be going all out to do it in two days,” said Oli Hicklin, one of the group of friends taking part.

“We’ll all be in superhero costumes and riding on all manner of rubbish bikes like a 1970s rally shopping bike which I’ll be on, vintage tandems and ladies bikes.

“It’s really captured people’s imaginations, we’ve had so much support with businesses sponsoring our bikes and donations from as far away as Canada.”

Businesses can sponsor individual bikes for £250 and people can donate any amount however small, while The Royal Oak’s latest way of showing its support has been to swap the pub sign with a bike.

On Saturday the group will be setting off from Felpham, riding through Bognor and then into Chichester, where they will be trawling the pubs and appearing at The Cross to drum up even more support.

Oli said: “Four years ago we all cycled from Bognor to Brugge and raised just over £22,000 for Snowdrop and this time we wanted to do even better.

“Now we’ve beaten that we’re aiming for £40,000, and because we’re covering all the costs of travelling, signs, petrol for the van and everything else, every penny of what we raise will go to the charity.

“The Sussex Snowdrop Trust is a brilliant charity that means a lot to all of us so we all want to raise as much as we can.”

The Sussex Snowdrop Trust, based in Chichester, provide care at home for children who have a life-threatening illness or who may be terminally ill, as well as supporting their families.

The team of Pink Pub to Paris riders are: Oli Hicklin, Mark Ward, Ben Long, Alastair Smyth, Jason Smith, Gary Pugh, Pat Cullen, Richard Scopes, Paul Sherwood, Martin Bryant, Allen Porter, Jack Keywood, Brad Knowles, Jez Brooks, Jamie Huband, Dale Stevens and Paul Terry.

You can help them beat their new £40,000 target by donating here https://www.justgiving.com/pink-pub-to-paris/