AN epic 152-mile bike ride from Ballingry to the north of Scotland has helped a Benarty man generate more than £2,000 for charity.

As reported in last week's Times, Stuart Dalgarno, of Ballingry Crescent, teamed-up with pal Mark Soutar to pedal from his home to Forres, located 25 miles east of Inverness, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support on Saturday.

It is the fifth year that Stuart, 41, has embarked on a charity event in aid of a cancer charity, having previously raised money for the likes of Prostate Cancer UK, The Brain Tumour Charity, Marie Curie and the Team Jak charity, which was created at the request of West Lothian teenager Jak Trueman following his own battle with childhood cancer.

Stuart, who revealed that members of his family, including his father, brother-in-law and father-in-law, and friends who have been touched by the disease in recent years inspired him to take on fundraising challenges, cycled more than 100 miles in a day for the first time.

Although he said parts of the route to his final destination – chosen as his parents live in the Morayshire town – were "a bit of a slog", he and Mark's efforts in taking 13 hours to complete a distance – starting as early as 5am – that would take three by road has raised £2,135 for Macmillan.

"It was really good and we ended up raising more than £2,000. Mark was also collecting money, unknown to me, and we had a few people donate later on," he said.

"Parts of it were a bit of a slog, like from Bridge of Earn to Perth, where we got soaked between 6-6.15am. It went off by the time we got to Dunkeld but, just after that, Mark punctured!

"Just north of House of Bruar to Dalwhinnie was the only other bit that was a slog, just because we were cycling into the wind and uphill. Once we got to Dalwhinnie, we weren't cycling in the wind and were going downhill, so it was a bit easier on the legs!

"We got here bang on 6pm, which was our target time, although I did feel a bit achey the following morning,

"Our destination was my mum and dad's house, and a few beers eased the aches and pains!"

Stuart's justgiving page remains open for donations, and can be accessed at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stuart-dalgarno2.