Published: Friday, 3rd July, 2009 7:00am

Epic bike ride to remember dad

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A BERKSHIRE man is cycling around the Royal County in a day to raise money in memory of his father.

Tim Coveney, 38, will ride the 130 mile circumference of Berkshire in just 24 hours to raise cash for The Prostate Cancer Charity.

His epic journey takes him from his home in Arborfield, heading west on the outskirts of Thatcham and Newbury, and on to Hungerford. Then he will turn north to Lambourn, through Eastbury and the Berkshire Downs on to Tilehurst and into Reading. But the IT consultant isn"t stopping there. Continuing east, his route goes through Woodley, Charvil and White Waltham before reaching Windsor, where a ride through Windsor Great Park sets him up for the final leg through North Ascot and Bracknell before arriving back in Arborfield Garrison recreation ground.

He said: 'After I lost my dad Des to prostate cancer, I wanted to challenge myself to do something out of the ordinary to raise awareness of the disease and also to raise some funds for The Prostate Cancer Charity. My dad had a good long life and lived with the disease for 15 years. The bike ride will certainly be an extreme challenge. There are a lot of hills around Berkshire, which I"m not particularly looking forward to and I just hope that it doesn"t rain too much. If it does at least it will keep me cool though!

'This isn"t an organised ride, just something I"ve been wanting to do for some time. I"ve done a few practice runs, the longest of which were on the weekend of June 6, my Dad"s birthday, to see how feasible this was for a one day ride and to map out the route, and now I know how hard this is going to be.'

The Prostate Cancer Charity"s head of community fundraising, Claire Walsh, said: 'Tim has set himself an incredible task in cycling 130 miles in one day. We are delighted that he has decided to take his own family"s experience of prostate cancer, and do something positive to help other men with the disease. He is hoping to raise a lot of money which will help The Prostate Cancer Charity to continue fighting prostate cancer on every front through research, support, information and campaigning.'

Tim sets off from Arborfield tomorrow (Saturday). For more information visit www.justgiving.com/timcoveney