“Happy 40th Anniversary St Ann’s Hospice! Keep up the great work that you are doing and enjoy your Tea!” Brian Turner CBE

All quotations are used with permission.

Paul even has to negotiate the London traffic when he goes to his job with an IT company.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

He will be taking things a little more leisurely when he climbs on board his penny farthing for a charity bike ride from Manchester to Blackpool on Sunday, July 8.

Paul and his friends are raising money for St Ann’s Hospice where his father Harold was treated before he passed away just over two years ago.

Paul, from Mellor, near Stockport, bought his own penny farthing two years ago although he has been riding that type of bike for about a decade.

“It’s a great thrill to ride a penny farthing and in many ways it’s just like being on a bike, although because you’re so high up you do have to be careful,“ said Paul, who works for ElasticHosts, a Cloud computing company.

“I fell off and broke my arm a couple of years ago and there are no brakes so you have to slow the bike down gently otherwise you end up going over the handlebars.

“I ride a couple of miles through the commuter traffic to work most days from where I live in Chiswick and you have to anticipate problems with other vehicles.”

Paul, aged 36, has ridden in several races and is hoping to complete the route from Manchester United’s stadium to Blackpool in between six and seven hours.

Last year he used a more conventional bike when he was joined by sister Lucy on a cycle ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End, raising £8,000 for the hospice in memory of their late father, a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.

* Paul competing in the London Nocturne. Picture courtesy of www.lyope.com.