Charity ride to honour cancer-struck Walsall nurse Tracey

Friends Darren Russell and Martin Collier will hit the road later this month with six other cyclists to raise money for Walsall Breast Cancer Support Group. For one of the riders, Darren Peach, the gruelling 72-hour ride will be extra sentimental.

In November 2013 his sister Tracey Lomax died of breast cancer at the age of 46. But for most of her illness she suffered in silence and did not get the support Walsall Breast Cancer Support Group specialises in.

Mr Peach, aged 44, and from Millfield Avenue, Bloxwich, said his sister, who used to be a nurse at the old Goscote Hospital in Walsall, would approve of the cause. She died at the age of 46.

"Maybe it was because she was a nurse but Tracey decided not to tell us about her terminal diagnosis until a few months before she died and went through most of it on her own," he said.

"When Tracey succumbed to this awful illness she left a devastated daughter, two grandchildren, mother, father and brother behind as well as a large and very close extended family. Had she confided in us sooner the group would have been our first point of contact."

The eight-strong group will set off from Bloxwich next Thursday, May 28 and hope to arrive in the seaside town Brean in under 72 hours. It is the second time Mr Russell and Mr Collier have completed the route. They previously tackled it, helping to raise £3,000.

Mr Russell, 45, from Lytham Grove, also Bloxwich, added: "Me and Martin were just speaking about it one day in the kitchen and ended up doing it hoping to raise a few hundred pounds.

"We weren't particularly keen bikers and I only bought a bike in January that year.

"But we ended up smashing our fundraising target and this time it will be great to do it for a good local charity.

"With Darren joining in this time and his sister dying of breast cancer, it just felt like the right thing to do."

Visit www.justgiving.com/walsall breastcaregroup to donate