A MICKLETON man aims to complete six gruelling challenges to raise £6,000 for six different cancer charities to mark his 60th birthday.
Brian Jukes, an entertainments operator, wants to raise £1,000 each for Macmillan, and charities which support prostate, bowel, breast, brain and children’s cancer.
He said: “We all know someone who has been affected by cancer.”
Mr Jukes, a keen rallycross racer, added: “My wife came up with the idea of doing the challenges. She asked me if I was going to do something special to celebrate my 60th birthday, considering I had done quite a lot off my bucket list and that’s where the idea for extreme challenges came from: six challenges to mark my 60th to raise £6,000 for six different cancer charities.”
The challenges are: cycle the 137-mile coast-to-coast route from Whitehaven to Sunderland; compete in the Kielder half marathon; cycle the Chapel challenge (a gruelling 51-mile route with a 7,40ft ascent over the highest roads in Britain); cycle 130 miles on a static bike in a supermarket foyer; complete the three peaks challenge; and be the first racer to compete in a motorcycle, sidecar and car in one event.
He added: “The plan had been to complete all six challenges in my 60th year, but it all went a bit awry due to logistics. I’m now 61 and I hope to get all the challenges done by the end of the year.”
Mr Jukes completed one challenge, to scale the three highest peaks in Britain, last month.
He said: “We helped a couple on Ben Nevis.
“The lady was in quite a bit of distress and was waiting for the air ambulance, but they were up in the cloud.”
He added: “We helped get them below so the air ambulance crew could pick them up so we didn’t finish inside the 24 hours.”
He is now gearing up for his next challenge which will take place at Cadwell Park race circuit in Lincolnshire at their Battle of Britain race meeting on August 19 and 20.
Event organisers, the Darlington and District Motor Club and the North East Motorcycle Club, are tweaking the timetable so Mr Jukes has the best possible chance of successfully completing the challenge to race on two, three and four wheels.
Mr Jukes, took up motorcycle racing three years ago. He said: “I’m going to compete in three different categories: on a Honda CB500 motorcycle, a Baker Suzuki 600F2 sidecar and in a VW Lupo car.
“As far as we are aware it has never been done before at one race meeting. It’s going to be a busy weekend and I will be jumping out of one set of leathers and into another for most of the weekend. My aim in each of the races is not to finish last.”
After that, he will concentrate on training for the Kielder half marathon in October.
He said: “I will do the challenges until I have raised the £6,000.”
Anyone who wishes to make a donation to Mr Jukes extreme challenges should visit justgiving.com/crowd
funding/brian-jukes?utm_ term=wQNGGeRxM
