Cyclists raise more than £600,000 for Cure Leukaemia

A team of 25 amateur cyclists riding the Tour de France route in June have raised more than £600,000 for Cure Leukaemia already.

The fundraisers are part of The Tour 21, a charity event aiming to raise £1million for national blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia.

Cure Leukaemia, which was announced as the first ever official Charity Partner of the Tour de France in the UK for the next three years, recorded a £1.7million fundraising shortfall in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The Tour 21 team aims to help the charity address this shortfall in funding by completing all 3,384km of the world 's most famous and prestigious professional cycling event.

All funds raised by The Tour 21, which was due to be held last year but was postponed due to the pandemic, will be invested in the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) which has been solely funded by Cure Leukaemia since 2020.

TAP is a network of specialist research nurses at 12 blood cancer centres located in the UK 's biggest cities and a facilitatory hub based at the Centre for Clinical Haematology in Birmingham 's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

This network enables accelerated setup and delivery of potentially life-saving blood cancer clinical trials to run giving patients from a UK catchment area of over 20 million people access to treatments not currently available through standard care.

Leading the team on his final Tour de France challenge is ex-England footballer, blood cancer survivor and Cure Leukaemia Patron Geoff Thomas (pictured), 56, who said: “We were meant to take on this challenge in 2020 before Covid-19 meant we had to postpone.

“But in that time, we have added to the team and become the official charity partner of the Tour de France in the UK. There is real momentum behind what we are doing as a team and with Cure Leukaemia recording a £1.7 million fundraising shortfall last year it is imperative that we surpass £1million to ensure patients across the UK have access to potentially lifesaving clinical trials. ”

Cure Leukaemia chief executive James McLaughlin, added: “Geoff and all of the team are training phenomenally hard at the moment to be ready ahead of June 19 and to have raised over £600,000 in such challenging times is already a fantastic achievement.

“However, we are keen for as many people as possible to support The Tour21 team and we hope by supporting these two new fundraising opportunities, the £1million target will be reached by the time Geoff leads the 25 strong team into Paris on Sunday 11 July. ”

With the team progressing towards their £1million target, two inclusive fundraising opportunities linked to The Tour 21 have been launched which will enable anyone to get involved, help the team reach their goal and have the chance to win some fantastic prizes.

From Sunday 6 June, users of app Strava, globally, will be able to sign up to The Tour 21 Strava Challenge.

The challenge will be to ride the distance of the longest stage of this year 's Tour de France route between 19 June and 11 July, a staggering 238km.

Strava users can complete it over three weeks or do it in a day, giving cyclists of all abilities the chance to get involved across the world.

All who take part will be encouraged to raise £100 for Cure Leukaemia towards the team 's total and all those who fundraise or complete the challenge will be in with the chance of winning some incredible prizes.

In addition to the Starva challenge, tickets are now available to purchase for The Ultimate Cycling Prize Draw with all proceeds going towards The Tour 21 team 's fundraising for Cure Leukaemia.

The raffle win run until 18 June, the day before the start of The Tour 21 with a prize draw then held daily from 19 June to 11 July. It costs £21 to enter the raffle and, once entered, people will be automatically included in each of the 21 prize draws.

The top prize is a Pinarello Dogma F12 worth £12,000.