AN Okehampton Cycling Club member will be pedalling more than 500-miles to the Basque Country next week and then back again, but he won’t be asking people to put their hands in their pockets as it is not a charity ride, he said, just a commute to work — one in which he hopes to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation.

Fifty-year-old Nigel Hale-Hunter is a cycling coach and has been contracted to provide support for another company’s cycling tour in the Basque Country.

Instead of just flying down to Biarritz as he has done when he has previously worked there, he has decided to hop on his bike and cycle from the Roscoff ferry port down to his destination in four to five days and then back in four to five days, unsupported, to try to raise awareness for Transplant Sport and organ donation.

Nigel said: ‘It’s a commute — a ride to work and like so many I will be leaving late and in a hurry. After an overnight ferry on September 19, to Roscoff, I will be on the road for up to 12 hours a day, riding unsupported the 500 miles on my way to the Basque Country for a few days work and then I’ll ride back again.

‘Yes it is really a commute to work and yes I’m not asking for sponsorship. It’s not a charity ride, I’m doing it because I can — I’m healthy and I love cycling. However I do wish to bring peoples’ attention to an important cause.

‘Waiting for a transplant is not living, it’s hanging on against the odds, where a commute to work as part of a normal life is just a dream. On average in the UK three people a day die in need of a transplant. Although 96 percent of us would take a donated organ if required, in the UK less than 30 percent of us have signed up as a prospective donor. Our organs won’t do any good buried or cremated with us. If you choose to, by registering as a potential organ donor, your gift could save more than seven lives after you die and it will cost you nothing.’

Nigel said this year a good friend of his was extremely ill and had been receiving dialysis for some time. She was running out of time and her father stepped in to donate one of his kidneys to save her life. He said she is now recovering and looking forward to getting a job and her life back on track.

Nigel hopes to complete his ‘commute to work’ in four or five days — the average amount of time someone spends receiving dialysis in a week.

‘I love riding anyway and it is a great reason to go for a long ride before the winter, but something like this is impossible for someone waiting for a transplant — if on dialysis they would be spending as much time as I spend cycling receiving dialysis just to stay alive. So I hope to spend that much time on the road to show my compassion.’

Nigel will be posting about his journey every day on social media and posting facts about organ donation that he hopes will help people think about how much of a difference signing the organ donor register could make.

He added: ‘If we all saved one life when ours is over, you have to wonder what those new lives could accomplish if given that chance.’

Follow Nigel’s journey on www.facebook. com/BPMcyclecoachandguide and twitter.com/ bpmcoaching. Also follow him on Strava @bpmcoaching.