A DALGETY BAY couple are gearing up to cycle 2,000 kilometres on their tandem from West Fife to Budapest in the name of charity.

Freelance photographer Richard Newton and health and safety lecturer Nik Olliver will be raising funds for Alzheimer’s Research UK and will be clocking up 100kms a day as they hope to cover the distance within 16 days.

Richard, 53, said: “We’ve got a flight back booked on August 1 with the tandem so we have no choice but to complete the journey by then!

“Doing 70 miles is fairly hard, there’s no doubt about that.

“By itself it’s OK but when you’re doing it back to back every day, it just gets harder, not easier.

“You get more aches and pains and we’ll also be camping along the way so it’s quite a weight to carry and you really feel it when you’re going up those hills.

“We’ve built in a few days to enjoy Budapest at the end but it also gives us some space in case we have any problems on the way.”

The couple will set off from their home and head to Newcastle where they’ll catch a ferry to Amsterdam.

Their gruelling journey will go through the Netherlands onto Germany where they’ll follow the river Danube all the way to Budapest.

But it’s not the first time they’ve taken on a mammoth challenge for charity.

Richard explained: “About 13 years ago, for our 40th birthdays, we cycled from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, which is about half of the distance, and managed to raise £9,000 for a few different charities.

“This year, we’re celebrating 25 years of doing business in Scotland so it’s a way of us giving back to charity.

“No-one in our family has been affected by Alzheimer’s but we were doing some investigating and found that not as much money goes into research for the disease as cancer.

“We think this is a really important thing to do because it’s on the increase and most people know someone affected. We have neighbours who have suffered from it through family members too.

“We’re also getting older and you never know when you might get it.”

Nik added: “It will be tough but we’re both really looking forward to the challenge, we will be camping en route so we can be flexible but July 26 is our target and we hope to reach it and make as much money for Alzheimer’s Research UK as possible.”

Richard and Nik hope to raise £2,000 for charity and have so far seen £815 donated to their online fundraising page.

Kyle Lockhart, regional fundraising officer – Scotland at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “We’re so grateful to Nik and Rich for supporting Alzheimer’s Research UK.

“Dementia affects a huge proportion of the population – over 70,000 people in Scotland alone live with dementia and one in three people over 65 in the UK will die with some form of the condition.

“Fantastic fundraising efforts like this will help us to defeat dementia sooner.”

Visit Nik and Richard’s MyDonate page here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/e2b.