FIVE amateur cyclists have raised nearly £9,000 to help a girl paralysed in a road accident - cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End in under four days.

Dave Moss-Blundell, Alex Boynton, Peter Young, Edd Raddon and Spike Ambery-Smith withstood exhaustion and pain to complete their 874-mile challenge in just 83 hours - an average of 220 miles per day.

Their efforts attracted social media attention and hundreds of followers pledged donations.

The epic ride was in support of Jenny Unwin, from Burton Leonard, near Ripon. She was just 15 when she was knocked off her bike last July and left paralysed from the chest down.

An appeal fund set up by her former employer at Cascade Garden Centre, near Ripon, now aims to provide Jenny with additional support to help her lead an independent life in the years ahead. It has already raised more than £60,000 in just eight months.

And such is Jenny’s will to succeed she is already hoping to compete in the Paralympics in 2020, either on a bike or in the swimming pool.

Mr Moss-Blundell said: “We are all delighted to have completed our mission. It was a very tough few days but we all dug deep to make sure we did it and we are chuffed to have raised so much money for Jenny along the way.

“The response and support from folk on Facebook and Twitter was fantastic and really helped to drive us along when we were all hurting.

“We are very grateful to all the generous people who have helped us raise this amount of money for such a great cause.”

He added: “We are all in recovery state now but are already planning another cycling challenge for next year, again for Jenny, so watch this space.”