New Mills woman due to finish epic charity bike ride in home town this week

Katy Pearson is riding a Pendleton bike, complete with traditional shopping basket on the handlebars, from her dad’s house in Dorset to New Mills to raise money for suicide prevention charity CALM and High Peak Homeless Help.

The 38-year-old, who has recently located to New Mills to be closer to the rest of her family needed to get her bike from her dad’s garage to her new home so decided to put it to good use by riding it solo, with just 10kg of essentials, including just one change of clothes, on a journey of more than 320 miles.

Armed with fig rolls and lebkuchen, German cookies enjoyed at Christmas markets, Katy is staying in B&Bs during her epic 11-day journey, which will culminate at The Beer Shed in New Mills around 4pm today (Thursday).

Katy says: “My biggest challenge so far was setting off, I was so nervous – and still am each day – it’s a daunting task as I don’t know what’s around the corner weather, or otherwise. So far, I’ve endured epic rain and 30mph winds on gravel paths and with my shopper bike, that’s not the best combination!

“This is actually like a modern pilgrimage for me, it’s great to have the time to myself and I’m so pleased I can help CALM and High Peak Homeless at the same time. They’re both charities close to my heart.

“An added bonus is cycling along the canals and old railways, parts of the country we don’t often appreciate and I can’t wait to see these when I get to High Peak as I know we have some of the most stunning water and railways in the country.”

Katy has so far raised over £2,400 for the charities.

You can support Katy at her GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/katy-goes-home and follow her journey on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/inaword_awesome/.

For more information on High Peak Homeless Help, see the website at http://www.hphh.co.uk/ and for more information on CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/.