A UNIQUE plan has been devised to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening of Gilletts Callington Ltd's first store in the town.

Staff Gilletts have decided to take on the 'sparathon' — a 300 mile cycle, visiting 30 of the company's stores along the way, through four counties.

But not only will they undertake the gruelling challenge in just five days, they also aim to raise £10,000 for Children's Hospice South West (CHSW) along the way.

The main cycling team will consist of Jason Summerfield, an area manager for Gilletts, Nick Kenworthy, sales and marketing director of Appleby Westward, also celebrating its 30th anniversary, and Alan Cookson, IT director for Gilletts.

The ride will begin at their most easterly SPAR store in Salisbury on Monday, April 21 with a challenging 80-mile day. Throughout the week the team will then make their way down through the four counties and on Friday morning they will start their final day at CHSW's Little Harbour children's hospice in St Austell, to finish at their most westerly SPAR store in Hayle on Friday afternoon.

Alan Cookson and Jason Summerfield from Gilletts said: 'A couple of years ago we decided that as a business we wanted to change our supported charity to one much more local to our own business.

'After seeing the hospice and the team who carry out the fantastic work and how they are building precious memories for families whose children are living with life-limiting conditions we know that CHSW was the right choice for our chosen charity. To show support go to the group's Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/alan-cookson1">www.justgiving.com/alan-cookson1