Southampton friends set to cycle to Paris

Five-year-old Archie Adams was left unable to move from the neck down after being diagnosed with transverse myelitis when he was 18-months-old.

The rare condition has permanently damaged his spinal cord and Archie will need specialist medical equipment, such as a modified wheelchair.

Now the Southampton group will be raising money for a specialised FES bike, which gives electrode stimulation to the muscles to try and build them back up.

The equipment costs approximately £17,000, attending a specialist centre four to five times a week could be £3,375 per month, totalling £40,500 a year.

Andy Waghorne, Alan Bareham, Tony Wort and Russell Patrick will set off from Lordswood Close on May 11 at 7am, where they will ride approximately 84 miles to Newhaven for the first leg of their journey.

After arriving at Dieppe, Normandy, they will ride down Avenue Verte to the city, where they plan to celebrate their achievement by taking a selfie on the Eiffel Tower.

Andy, who organised the fundraiser, said: "I am a little bit nervous, we do not count ourselves as cyclists but we want to set ourselves a challenge. We are going with no support vehicle and are carrying everything we need on our backs.

"We have been training once a week since January around the New Forest and last week we cycled around the whole of the Isle of Wight, starting from Cowes, which was really hard."

The carpenter added: "We want to raise as much money as we can and even customers have been contributing, as we have been telling them about it."

Russell Adams, Archie's dad, said: "I couldn't believe it when I heard they were doing this bike ride. They are lovely people who want to help Archie."

"We are just trying to give him a normal life and this is why we are trying to fund raise for Archie, to give him what he needs."

The group have raised £1,035 so far and to help them further their cause, visit https://www.gofundme.com/cycle-for-archie.