“I will keep going for these guys as long as my legs will carry me.”
Veteran Angus fundraiser Ian Wren is making that pledge to injured troops ahead of his latest and toughest challenge yet.
The former soldier from Arbroath is preparing to take on a gruelling 350-mile bike ride through France for Help for Heroes.
An impressive total of £3,000 has already been banked through fundraising events and bucket collections but Ian says he will take every penny the local community is willing to give.
The 56-year-old will leave Paris on Tuesday May 28 with 300 other cyclists and complete the journey over six days. Each day the group will stop at battlefield memorial sites around the country to lay wreaths and pay tribute to the fallen.
The trek will take the fundraisers through Compiegne, Amiens, Le Touquet and Calais and then on to Chatham and Blackheath once back in the UK.
It will end at the Cenotaph in London on June 2, when thousands of other Help for Heroes riders from across the UK are expected to converge on the capital.
Ian said: “This is the biggest one yet. Up until now it has been around 130 or 140-mile rides from the likes of Arbroath to Glencoe.
“I am going to be travelling around 70 miles per day. On the last day we are biking from Blackheath into London and meeting up with the rest of the charity riders.
“It is going to be difficult but there are limbless guys who are doing it on handbikes and there is an amputee coming from Canada.”
Help for Heroes has organised for each rider involved in the nationwide Hero Ride to wear a different coloured shirt so the charity’s medal emblem will be visible from the air.
It is hoped the event will raise in excess of £1 million for servicemen and women injured in the line of duty.
Far from resting after the mammoth effort, Ian is already planning a cycle ride through the Mearns over the Cairn o’ Mount and into Aberdeenshire. To make a donation go to www.bmycharity.com/IanWren8452.