Wyke Regis fat-fighters to do 450km bike ride (From Dorset Echo)
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Wyke Regis fat-fighters to do 450km bike ride
4:30pm Monday 6th February 2012 in News By Rachel Stretton
Sam Wilson, left, and Jackie Jones with slimming club leader Sue Glenn, front
TWO fat-fighters are celebrating slimming by taking on the ultimate challenge – a 450km bike ride in Central America.
Sam Wilson and partner Jackie Jones, from Wyke Regis have lost six stone between them since pledging to lose weight two years ago.
To celebrate, the pair has signed up to take part in the Women for Women Cycle Challenge in November.
Sam, a member of the Wyke Slimming Group, said: “We saw an advert in a magazine and were instantly attracted to it.
“Two years ago, we wouldn’t have taken a second glance at the page. It isn’t something we would physically be able to do.
“But we are feeling the benefit and it is great knowing you can do things you wouldn’t have been able to do before.”
The couple have already started training for the ride, which begins in the Fortuna Forest Reserve in Panama and finishes in Granada, Nicaragua, six days later.
The route will take them across the Panama border into Costa Rica, with overnight stops in the towns of Cahuita, La Fortuna, Santa Cecilia, and entering Nicaragua near the town of La Virgen.
Sam said: “You go through stages of sheer terror at the thought of it, but most of the time we are really excited.
“It’s something most people would never get the chance to do.”
The trip will raise money for the Genesis Research Trust, a charity based in London which promotes research into the health of pregnant women and babies.
The couple are organising various events and raffles in the coming months to raise the £6,600 required for the trip.
Sam added: “That will also be a challenge but we’re planning to be a bit creative with it.
“To be honest, when we applied to do the trip a few weeks ago, I don’t think either of us expected to be accepted.”
Sue Glenn, who runs the Wyke Slimming Club the couple attend, is supporting the challenge.
She said: “If I had said to them two years ago that they would be doing something like this, they would have laughed in my face.”
She added: “Activity is such a big part of being healthy, and if it is something you can enjoy doing rather than being something you feel you have to do, so much the better.
