Oneplanet Adventure raise £5000!

Jim Gaffney and Ian Owen cycled 510km of red grade mountain biking trails across the UK. The fundraising effort, dubbed "The Red Grade Challenge" covered 29 mountain biking routes across the country. Mountain bike trails are graded in difficulty by colours, from the hardest black routes through to red, blue and green; the tour visited red grade routes up the east coast of England and into Scotland before returning to Wales.

Oneplanet Adventure also organised a Memory Walk fun day in Llandegla as 'the grand finale'. People from across the area were invited to take part in the sponsored walk and cycle day; together the participants aimed to cover a distance of 3,700 km - this figure was chosen as there are 37,000 people with dementia in Wales.

The pair decided to raise funds for Alzheimer's Society after Jim's dad, John, was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 54. John died at the age of 58, and Jim has wanted to support people with dementia and their carers ever since.

Jim says,

'We had thought about taking part in the London marathon and then chose to focus on mountain biking as it's what our business is. We wanted to do something to raise money and raise awareness of the Alzheimer's Society; the Red Route Challenge and the Memory Walk fun day will be a great way of making people in the area aware of ways of reducing the risk of dementia through exercise'

The Red Grade Challenge and the fun day raised over £5000! Jim and Ian are now planning another challenge for 2010, and have confirmed that they will be organising another fundraising fun day at the Oneplanet Adventure centre.