A father from Upper Chute has raised over £150,000 in memory of his daughter following a cycle ride that covered the length of the UK.

Jody Wood and a group of friends rode from Durness, on the north coast of Scotland, back to their family home in memory of his daughter Artemis, who passed away from a rare form of cancer at the age of three. After hitting their goal of £100,000, they raised it to £150,000, and even surpassed it.

Jody told the Advertiser: “I think it feels a bit like a dream at the moment. I don’t think it’s really sunk in.

“The fundraising is the most important bit and we’re absolutely blown away by the generosity of people. Lots of people we don’t even know have said they’ve been touched by the story, and to have raised our target and then smashed that too is pretty awesome.”

The ride began on July 4, with the team having to cycle an average of over 100 miles a day. However, even before they got going, it was already a challenge.

“We didn’t have a straightforward run,” Jody said. “One of the guys was diagnosed with Covid the day before we kicked off so he had to drop out.”

Even when they got going, it didn’t get any easier, with the team having a challenging route back home.

“It’s no mean feat,” said Jody, “especially when we went out of our way to pick the hilly route. It’s one thing doing 800 miles on the flat in the peloton, but we picked out the Yorkshire Dales and some of the glens in Scotland too, which really made sure that we all felt it keenly.”

This took its toll on some of the riders, who were forced to drop out of the ride.

“One guy became delirious, lost his vision and fell of his bike, so had to be put in the back of the van,” Jody said, “while another guy’s knee went, so after starting with 12, we went down to seven in the end who managed to complete the full thing.”

Along the way, the team received support from across the country, including celebrity shoutouts from Michael Ball, Chris Evans and even another Jodie – this one being from the planet Gallifrey.

Sending a message to the team, the current incarnation of the Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, said: “I am blown away by all of your achievements so far, so to Nick Wells and the rest of the team I’m sending you all of my love and admiration for this incredible challenge that you’ve set yourselves.

“Keep going and stay safe, and I’m sending you lots and lots of love and not to forget that this is for such a wonderful cause in honour of a beautiful girl called Artemis.”

The team successfully made it home on July 11, and has managed to raise over £154,000 at the time of writing.

“We’re all pretty thrilled, and it’s great to do these kind of challenges where you’re not really sure if it’s achievable,” Jody said. “I thought from the very beginning that we should all do something that wouldn’t be a jolly and isn’t necessarily achievable as a couple of the boys put it, Artemis suffered and so we ought to as well and we definitely did that for her.”

The money is being ringfenced towards specialist research into childhood leukaemia to try and find kinder treatments for these cancers.

“It’s a decent amount of money and we’ve made sure it’s going to the right places,” said Jody, and we hope that it will do some good. Unfortunately, I think we’re quite a way off finding a cure, but all you can do is contribute to the fight in the hope that one day the day will come.”

Following a well-deserved rest, the family plan to keep raising money in memory of Artemis, with a concert among the ideas proposed.

“We’re going to keep doing stuff,” Jody said. “There’s lots of different ways to remember people, like weeping in a graveyard, which we do, but I think you also have to try and so things to remember them in a positive way to keep that memory alive.

“We want to keep doing things to keep people talking about her.”

If you would like to push their fundraising total even higher, visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/RawhidesRiding4Artemis