Winchester Man cycles across Europe in aid of cancer research

A man has cycled across Europe to raise money for cancer research.

Kieran Payne, from Winchester, rode for 60 days across the European Divide Trail - which runs for 7,600km through nine countries.

The 23-year-old took on the challenge after his mum was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer.

So far he has raised £4,750 for Cancer Research UK and said the route was a "big challenge", but that he "really enjoyed it".

Mr Payne said: "The biggest challenge was the mental side, because you're spending a lot of time solo getting up and doing it day after day."

The route, which goes from Europe's most north-easterly point to its most south-westerly point, is mostly off-road.

He said: "Because you're covering such a large distance, you encounter different challenges across the way.

"In Scandinavia you're quite isolated, so finding food and water is the biggest challenge, and then as you move further south, by the time I got to Spain, it was the heat and the terrain that were the main challenges."

Mr Payne, who rode for around eight hours each day, added that "if you said to me last summer that I was going to do this, I'd have said 'no way'".

He carried all of his equipment, including his tent and clothes, with him for the whole journey, and was entirely self-supported.

Mr Payne, who recently graduated from University of Bath, was met at the finish line at Cabo de São Vicente, in Portugal, by his mum Sandy.

"To have a challenge I'd been thinking about for a while personally, and to be able to do it for a cause like that, and for mum, was so nice," he said.

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