Bon Voyage to Sheffield’s Charity Cyclists

Bon Voyage to Sheffield’s Charity Cyclists

1 June 2008

A team of cyclists from Sheffield and Hull will be using their pedal power to raise thousands of pounds for Yorkshire charities next month.

Property developer Mark Dransfield, of Barnsley based Dransfield Properties Ltd, is joining forces with his brother’s Hull based company PDR Construction to field a team of 12 amateur cyclists who’ll be taking the gruelling trip from Paris to Lyon.

The team will be covering 285 miles over four days from the French capital to Lyon - the third largest city in France. They’re due to leave Sheffield on Tuesday June 3^rd starting their first day of cycling the following day.

The event has been organised to raise funds for Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity and Leukaemia Research, it’s hoped the cyclists will raise around £50,000 for the two charities.

Last year the Yorkshire riders cycled the 186 miles from London to Paris but they’re expecting the route on this year’s challenge to be tougher and have all been training even harder this year.

Day one will see the riders covering 65 miles from Paris to Fontenay-sur-Loing. On Day Two they’ll head to Avallon then on Day Three they will cycle from Avallon to Le Creusot covering 60 miles.

The final gruelling stretch from Le Creusot will be a leg aching 85 miles with the saddle sore cyclists arriving in Lyon on the evening of June 7^th.

Joining the team being fielded from Sheffield are:

• Mark Dransfield of Dransfield Properties Ltd
• David Simpson of David Simpson Financial Services
• Andrew Malley of Dransfield Properties Ltd
• David Vernon-Edwards of the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity
• Peter Crossland of Irwin Mitchell

A further seven Hull cyclists, including Paul Dransfield from PDR Construction, are also joining the Paris to Lyon Challenge. Next year the team will go from Lyon to Monte Carlo.

Mark, is Managing Director of Dransfield Properties Ltd, the urban regeneration specialists based in Barnsley.

The company is involved in multi million pounds projects across the country and closer to home Dransfield Properties is delivering schemes in Penistone and Stocksbridge, in Sheffield.

Mark said: “Last year was a tough challenge cycling from London to Paris and this year is going to be even harder, it’s nearly 100 miles longer than our previous route and very hilly in parts. But we’re looking forward to the challenge and hoping to equal if not better our total from last year when we raised £50,000.

“Next year we want to go from Lyon to Monte Carlo and the plan is that we continue the journey every year. We are grateful to everyone who has sponsored us so far but we want to raise as much as possible so we’d love to hear from anyone else who would like to sponsor us.”

Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity is raising money for a state of the art Bone Density Scanner for the world class bone disease work at the Hospital. The scanner costs £120,000.

The DXA scanner is vital for the diagnosis of bone disease. After diagnosis the scanner enables very effective monitoring of treatment. This can have a dramatic effect - a child can go from being wheelchair bound and needing to be wrapped in cotton wool (the equivalent fall to jumping off a chair could break their legs) to running around and bashing into things safely... like a child should be able to!

If you would like to sponsor Mark or keep an eye on the team’s daily progress from Paris to Lyon from 3^rd to the 7^th of June please log on to the company’s website at www.dransfield.co.uk

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk