A NORTH-EAST motorcyclist braved snow blizzards and gale force winds on a 3,000-mile journey to raise money for tsunami victims.

Jon Formstone, 29, from Norton, near Stockton, arrived back in the region at the weekend after his two-week sponsored ride around the British coastline.

Mr Formstone set off from Redcar, east Cleveland, on February 27 in the snow.

"Straight away, I was a little bit apprehensive. It was a new bike on loan from Yamaha and I didn't want anything to happen to it," he said.

In Scotland, the finance manager was snowed in, then drove through blizzards near Blackpool, before hitting gale force winds in Great Yarmouth.

But he hopes his efforts will have raised several thousand pounds for Unicef's tsunami appeal.

"The trip has had its good days and bad days, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat," he said at the Hein Gericke store in Darlington, which donated clothing for his trip.

The shop, in Northgate, also donated heated handlebar grips and put collection tins in each of its 43 stores nationwide.