Have you spotted a tandem around Burscough, Scarisbrick, Lydiate or Maghull in the past week?

If so, you might have caught a fleeting glimpse of a much longer challenge.

Back in 1993, Joe Hurst, the son of a farmer from Back Lane, Aughton (and who once had a Saturday job on Ormskirk Market), and his eldest daughter Kate had a tandem specially built at Swallow Tandems, in Powys, Wales, and clocked up well over two thousand miles on their much loved machine.

Recent events have prompted them to dust off their bicycle made for two in an attempt to raise funds for charity. After a family member received treatment at Rosemere Cancer Foundation in Fulwood, Preston twice during the past four years, Joe and Kate decided it was time to do something in return ...

Through her involvement with Ormskirk and District Family History Society, Kate (now 32) has got to know a lot about their project to document the lives of local boatmen and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

And although the Hursts have no direct links to the boat families they were inspired to devise their own challenge, to go from Leeds to Liverpool and back ... on a tandem!

So far, their sponsored cycle ride has taken them from their home in Clitheroe to Eccleston and back (53.6 miles), Eccleston to Lydiate and back (36.1 miles), and Lydiate to the Eldonian Basin at Liverpool (24.2 miles, on 29 July), and the Yorkshire section is currently being mapped out.

They are hoping to raise £500 for Rosemere, and are already a quarter of the way there.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraisi...erpoolBothWays