JAMES Sullivan is part of a team currently riding from Newport Transporter Bridge to its Boro namesake.

That’s quite a ride. Whose idea was it and why this particular journey?

I came up with the idea. Two years ago I organised and participated in a ride from Tower Bridge in London to the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough and we called that TB2TB. This is a progression of that. I looked for another Transporter Bridge to cycle from and Newport was perfect in terms of distance. I started planning about a year ago and TB2TB2 was born.

There is a serious side to why you are doing it, tell me the story behind that?

The first ride was for a colleague at the time called Diane Jones, a NHS sister in the Emergency Department at North Tees who developed liver cancer and needed some money for her treatment. Diane sadly passed away but I and some others formed a not-for-profit organisation called Trusts United who now help NHS workers from three local NHS trusts (South Tees, North Tees & North East Ambulance Service) who are off work due to illness or are going through a hard time, whatever that may be. Colleagues can nominate a workmate via our website and our board of trustees decide on an appropriate amount or gift.

So we are raising money for Trusts United to continue our great work in helping NHS workers when in need - 'caring for those who care'.

How many people are taking part, where are they from and of what ages and abilities?

There are 26 people taking on the challenge, 24 cyclists and two support staff. The majority of participants are NHS workers from the North-East and based within one of the trusts Trusts United support but we also have Jonathan from UK Border Force and Mikie and Steph, paramedics from Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

We are a mixed ability group from people who do 100 –150 miles per week to total novices who have only just started cycling and will be lucky if they have covered 100 miles in training. We age from 30 to 60ish.

What is the schedule for the ride and how was it worked out?

The ride takes place from June 22nd to 24. It was initially done simply on Google Maps to get the distance then refined to see where the natural stopping points where. The total mileage for the ride is 308 so it broke down to roughly 100-ish miles per day which gave us stops in Birmingham and Doncaster. I then looked at the route in great detail to avoid any busy roads and have looked at every aspect of the route on street view. We now have a great route averaging just over 100 miles per day with little stops every 25 miles or so.

Has this ride been done before?

Not to my knowledge. I like to design routes that are unique, I didn’t want to go for an obvious route like the Coast to Coast, I wanted to set a new challenge for everyone.

Are you prepared for all eventualities along the way?

I think so. We have been loaned a support van from local cycling events company Velo29 to whom we are very grateful. That will meet us at 25 mile points along the way and will have spares and supplies on board and will also contain a full medical kit supplied by CIPHER Medical Consultancy for use by the paramedics.

What do you expect to be both the hardest part and the most rewarding?

The hardest part will be getting on the bike on day two and three, especially for the novices. For them also completing 100 miles on a bike will be hard, but that’s the most rewarding working as a team to get everyone to the end of every day. We will not split up and we will all ride at the pace of the slowest - start and finish as a team.

Have you set yourselves a fundraising target?

Yes we hope to raise £2,000 and people can donate at https://uk.gofundme.com/trusts-united-tb2tb2 or check out our website www.trustsunited.com absolutely any amount is gratefully received.