Ivan thomas raises more than £ 4,000 for charity Kent seamer Ivan Thomas is back in whites having raised more than £ 4,000 for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) by cycling and hiking more than 1,100 miles on his own. CRY is a charity close to Thomas as his former Leeds/Bradford MCCU team mate Tommy Hardman passed away from an undiagnosed heart condition in 2012. ” Tommy was an extremely fit and healthy individual and his passing was a huge shock to the whole cricketing community in Leeds,” Thomas said. ” He was a very talented player who had gone as far as the Lancashire Second XI. As Tommy had played such a huge part in my first year of university and was such an amazing bloke to so many, I wanted to do something in his honour and raise awareness of the dangers of underlying cardiac problems in young, healthy individuals. ” Tommy’s family chose CRY who do amazing work for young athletes through screening and diagnosing possible heart defects. ” This ride was originally going to be from Land’s End to John O’Groats, however, a few months before it started I decided to change the route and add the three national peaks in Snowdon, the Lake District and Ben Nevis. ” This added around 300 miles to the ride. I originally planned to do the cycle in 2013, but back injuries prevented me completing it. I set a time limit of 14 days to complete the journey which involved eleven days riding and three days hiking, which meant I had to average around 110 miles a day.” There were plenty of adventures on the way for Thomas including getting lost at the start of his epic journey and getting caught in a snow storm at the top of Ben Nevis. ” I was cycling and hiking on my own for the whole trip. I had planned to gently ease into it with a 95 mile ride on the first day, but got lost in the first half hour and ended up cycling 112 miles on the first day after taking a wrong turn and ending up in the middle of a forest,” Thomas said. ” I also got caught in a huge snow storm at the top of Ben Nevis and lost my phone off the side of the mountain, while attempting to take a selfie for the daily charity update! I cycled through weather warnings of 70mph winds in Scotland, and was blown off my bike four times in total. ” I managed to complete the trip within the fourteen days and was on the bike for an average of 12 gruelling hours a day, which was a huge shock to the body as the longest training ride I had done was 40 miles.” *To donate to the Cardiac Risk In The Young Fund please go to www.justgiving.com/Ivan-Thomas1?utm_id=26 {{ak_sharing}}
