TWO friends from West Devon pedalled for two days in a sponsored bike ride to raise hundreds of pounds for two charities.

Lauren Hall from Tavistock, 23, and Abi Staniland from Peter Tavy, 27, (pictured right) recently rode coast to coast across Devon raising £650 for the North Devon Animal Ambulance and Woodside Animal Sanctuary.

The pair rode just under 100 miles on cycle route 27 from Ilfracombe to Plymouth, accompanied by Lauren's father Gavin.

Lauren said: 'We both currently work at the Peter Tavy Inn which is where a lot of the sponsorship money came from, through locals and customers.

'We wanted to raise money for these charities because I got my dog Pepper from Woodside, and last year she needed a ligament operation on her leg which at the time I could not fund on my own, but the North Devon Animal Ambulance helped.

'We really wanted to give some money back to them for their help and their continued fantastic work with animals.

'We chose route 27 as we thought it would be nice to do a route which goes near both charities. We rode over two days cycling from Ilfracombe to Lydford on the Saturday, where we stayed over, and continued on Sunday from Lydford to Plymouth. We really enjoyed the ride — there were certainly a few places we decided we were being silly and should have stayed at home, but we got there in the end with smiles on our faces.'

Lauren and Abi expressed thanks to everyone who donated and helped them to raise more than £600.

'We want to thank my dad Gavin who did the ride with us, Peta and Toby who put us up for the night and Abi's parents Rob and Sue for picking us up at the finish,' added Lauren.