Bolton man cycling Lands End to John O'Groats

Krish Patel, who is from The Haugh, began his epic bike ride from Lands End to John O'Groats on Friday.

The 31-year-old, who used to play football professionally for Bury FC, expects to complete the challenge in around two to three weeks. 

He will be fundraising for Tales To Inspire, a social enterprise he founded which runs employability and support workshops. 

He has previously raised over £13,000 in the past to support various causes, having run four marathons in four days to support the building of a schoolhouse in Uganda and swam 53 Miles in 2019 to support 36 homeless people into employment. 

Krish on a practice cycle (Image: Public)

He said: "I wouldn't say physical challenges are my natural way of doing things.

"Cycling, marathons and things like that are not natural to me, but I do them to support organisations.

"Tales To Inspire is a social enterprise that shares real life stories to provide real life change. We run workshops across the North West, lots of them are in Bolton.

"The workshops are on employability, building confidence, building resilience and provide support for people in the community."

Krish during his days as a Bury FC player (Image: Public)

He continued: "When I came back in 2018 from America, I was introduced to a homeless person called Danny, he was a huge inspiration to me.

"When someone is homeless they are still human, it is important to remind people of that.

"He was homeless for over 5 years and managed to get himself off the streets. I interviewed him and shared his story on social media.

"Within a few days his story had been read in 15 countries around the world. That is where it began in 2019." 

Krish then founded Tales To Inspire, which as well as running workshops, has told 150 people's stories to inspire others. 

He is taking on the challenge to raise money to help people (Image: Public)

He continued: "I can show people I am doing this, cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats even though I am not a cyclist.

"It is a great opportunity to show people, if I am willing to put myself through difficult times, there must be a reason and it is a good way to start a conversation.

"I am feeling good for it, there is only so much training you can do, you kind of adapt. I am doing it with my girlfriend, Melissa Fielding.

"It has been an amazing journey of learning things together. We're not trying to do it in a world record time."

To donate to Krish's fundraiser, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cycletoinspire