A MAN has raised over £4,000 by fixing up old bikes and either raffling them or giving them away for free.

Martin King, from Eastleigh, has been running his service, "Free Bikes Hampshire UK" for about a year now.

He decided to set it up when someone brought an old bike into Age UK in Eastleigh, the shop Martin works in.

The bike was damaged and therefore not suitable to sell so Martin decided to make a donation to the shop, before taking the bike, home and doing it up.

He enjoyed doing this so much that he decided to collect more unused bikes to fix up.

He now runs a Facebook page where he posts pictures of the bikes he is donating and sometimes raffles off the best bikes to raise money for charity.

Martin said: "It's just something I enjoy doing and my way of giving back.

"It changes people's mental health because they can go out on bikes with the kids.

"I help as many as I can and I'm at it nearly every day. I go out in my garden at about 10am and won't come in until it gets dark."

Since starting the Facebook group, Martin has fixed up and donated over 1,000 bikes, and says with lockdown restrictions in place, he has never been so busy.

There are now over 2,700 members of the group and Martin said he is constantly getting new bikes in.

Some people give a donation to the cause when they receive a bike, but other than this, Martin has been spending his own money on the equipment, and petrol needed to travel to pick up bikes, travelling as far as Portsmouth, Basingstoke and Fleet on occasions.

"I won't be stopping for a long time because I enjoy it that much.

"Nowadays even the kids bikes are over £100 and not everyone can afford them so it's nice to give them away and help people out."

Martin says he has donated money to organisations including the NHS, fire service, ambulance, and Age UK.