MORE than £6,000 has been raised from a charity bike effort in honour of a brave nineyear- old boy battling cancer.

Matthew Donnelly from Locks Heath went along just days after surgery to support dad Ged and 15-year-old brother Shaun as they led riders on a 100-mile journey to raise money for the nurses who are taking care of him.

Football-mad Matthew, a pupil at St Jude's Primary School in Fareham, was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing's sarcoma in February.

He is currently recovering from an operation to remove a tumour from his leg and is nearly halfway through a tough regime of chemotherapy which could see him free of the disease by next February or March.

The event, dubbed the Ride for Life, took riders from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore in Middlesex, where the surgery was performed, to the Piam Brown children's cancer ward at Southampton General Hospital.

Mr Donnelly, of Meadow Avenue, said: "It was a great privilege to get so many kind, generous people in the same place at the same time to support these very worthy causes.

"Matt thinks it's great" To donate to the effort, visit www.therideforlife.co.uk