Daughter completes dad’s bike challenge after his death

A woman who went on a charity bike ride for her father after his sudden death mid-way said completing it in his memory made her feel “at peace”.

Eric Oakley, 64, from Hampsthwaite, near Harrogate, collapsed and died of unknown causes on the seventh day of the journey between Land’s End and John O’Groats in September.

The experienced cyclist was raising money in memory of his father and fellow cyclist David Birtwistle, who both died from cancer.

His daughter Jes Oakley-Stafford and her husband decided to take the route where her father Eric collapsed near Settle.

Mrs. Oakley-Stafford said BBC Radio York: “When we first started pedaling on a Friday afternoon, it had actually only been two days since my dad had been buried.

“So it was kind of a flash to bang thing, it was quite raw, but that made it even more important and essential to start and see it through to the end.

“It was the most peace I have felt since we lost our dad, but it made me even more confident that we were doing the right thing.”

They decided to complete the challenge over three weekends rather than seven days due to work commitments.

Speaking about her father’s fitness level, Mrs Oakley-Stafford said: ‘We haven’t achieved the level of training he has.

“My husband and I are reasonably fit, we exercise and go to the gym, so we’re both in good health, but trying to cycle 820 miles in seven and a half would also be a bit ‘mental’ days in a row.”

She said even that was “challenging enough” given the number of hills and climbs, and when working in between she described it as “full.”

The pair had to brave the elements, with Storm Ashley hitting on the final day of cycling.

Recalling a particularly grueling section of the route along the Scottish coast, Ms Oakley-Stafford said: “It was absolutely physically exhausting for us. It was absolutely terrible.”

She said they managed to find a closed pub to take shelter in after the owner saw them knocking on the window.

“They opened up just for us to give us coffee so we could dry off and escape the storm for a while.”

“It wasn’t safe to continue cycling and on Sunday evening we still had 18 and a half miles to go, which was quite difficult to do,” she said.

Instead, the pair were forced to continue the challenge on Monday and return to Yorkshire after midnight and work the next day.

“It just made me even more amazed and in awe of what he was doing,” she added.

The family, Mrs Oakley-Stafford, her sister Emma, ​​35, and stepmother Jo, have raised their fundraising target for Cancer Research UK from a “modest” £2,000 to £20,000 and, at the time of writing, have raised more than £16,500.

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