South Yorkshire cyclists raise £50,000 for charity

South Yorkshire cyclists raise £50,000 for charity

18 December 2015

The riders from a charity cycle team who took to their bikes to tackle a tough route through Germany have reached their target of raising a fantastic £50,000 for charity.

The annual Tour of Europe ride is organised by the South Yorkshire based property firm, Dransfield Properties Ltd.  For the 2015 ride the company fielded a 15 strong team and covered more than 430 miles, cycling from Munich to Berlin over five days in September.

The riders have supported Action Against Cancer (AAC) and Bloodwise (formerly Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research) this year  – a third of the funds raised every year is also donated to other charities and groups nominated by the team of riders through the Dransfield Foundation.

A donation of £7,000 has also been given this year to C-R-Y (Cardiac Risk in the Young). The  team decided to support the charity after a former colleague of some of the riders from Hull-based construction company, PDR lost his son to a rare and undetected heart condition.

Mark Dransfield, Managing Director of Dransfield Properties Ltd, said: “This ride is by far the longest ride we have done in terms of the miles we have covered and we have been overwhelmed by people’s kind contributions to our nominated charities. We really do appreciate every single penny which is donated as of course do the charities which we support.”

“We had to face some extremely tough hills and very long days on our bikes but the team did really well in both the cycling and more importantly with the fundraising - reaching the £50,000 target is fantastic.”

The charity cycle team are now planning the 2016 ride which will pick up from this year’s finish point at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and finish in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

The annual Tour of Europe ride started in 2007 taking a route from London to Paris. In the last seven years the riders have covered more than 3,111 miles through five different countries – they’ve stopped off at Lyon, Marseilles, Portofino, Rome, Dubrovnik, Trieste, Munich and this year’s finishing point, Berlin.

The riders cover a leg of their journey every year with the aim of getting back to London by 2022 – since the annual ride was founded more than £350,000 has been raised for charity through the fundraising efforts of the team.

The money donated to Bloodwise will help support the Trial Acceleration Programme and at AAC it is helping to support ground breaking research programmes headed by Professor Justin Stebbings in London. The research focusses on developing new diagnostics and treatments to improve the survival prospects and the quality of life for millions of cancer sufferers worldwide.

To see more pictures from the 2015 Tour of Europe please visit the Dransfield Properties website at www.dransfield.co.uk or you can like Team Dransfield on facebook or follow the cyclists on twitter @teamdransfield

Picture shows the team at the finish line at The Brandenburg Gate.

The 2015 riders were Mark Dransfield, Paul Dransfield, Tony Gibb, Andrew Malley, Dean Draper, Tim Downing, Philip Prince, Christian Cox, Lee Newsham, Dave Maughan, Robert Neale, Richard Timms, John White, Paul Sutherland, Mike Fielding.

For further information, contact:

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