A determined dad has cycled a staggering 200 miles while riding his eight-year-old daughter’s tiny pink bike.
Over six days, Wesley Hamnett pedaled from Glasgow, Scotland to Manchester, England on a £20 ($26) bike with 12-inch wheels.
The dad-of-two had wanted to raise funds for various charities and hospitals which were close to his heart after he lost his granddad to cancer last year.
He’d originally planned to cycle 1,250 miles from Russia to his home in Lancashire. But due to the pandemic, he was forced to backpedal and turn to the drawing board.
He decided he would cycle from Glasgow to Manchester while riding a comically small bike his two young daughters learned to ride on “as a laugh.”
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After a grueling cycle which included a six-hour long stretch and eight busted tyres, the cargo handler managed to drag the 12-inch wheels to his home near Manchester on September 21.
Wesley said, “I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. Hell, I wasn’t sure if the bike was going to make it all the way. I felt like I was going to die during certain stretches, but it was all worth it.
He endured gruelling pain and reached peaks as high as 1,350 feet at the Shap Summit in Cumbria, England which he says—with some understatement—the bike “wasn’t built for”.
“I kept pushing because any time there’s an uphill climb, there must be a downhill climb… I felt like a little kid going down. I couldn’t stop if I tried. It was scary, but amazingly fun.”
“We’ve gotten so much incredible support on this journey and none of it would have been possible without the bike.”
Wesley is fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support, Christie Charitable Fund, British Heart Foundation and Wythenshawe Hospitals MFT Charity.
He has raised just over £8,300 ($10,730) so far and still hopes to make the trek from Russia to Manchester next spring.
37-year-old Wesley says, “I want to thank everyone who has donated—they’ve been absolutely amazing. I feel so overwhelmed but it’s been a real blessing.” If you’d like to give to his fundraiser, you can head to the GoFundMe page here.
(WATCH Wesley’s footage from his pink bicycle in the SWNS video below.)
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