Shoreham man and his colleagues raise thousands for pancreatic cancer charity with 100km challenge

Luke Wilcox, who works for The Pensions Regulator in Brighton, and his co-workers decided to take on the challenge after learning that their friend and colleague Simon Hydes had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

The fundraiser had additional significance for Luke, aged 37, as his father Ken has also been undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Luke said: “Originally we were going to do the challenge as part of an organised event with support teams on hand.

“Understandably, in light of COVID-19, the large event has been cancelled, but we wanted to keep going for Simon and for the charity.

“Their challenges haven’t gone away, so we wanted to persevere with our fundraising.

“It has really brought us together at what has been a challenging time for everyone, but particularly for Simon and his young family.”

The team, known as the TPR Trailblazers, have been training in small groups over lockdown in preparation for taking on between 25 and 100km of the challenge by either running or walking.

On Saturday, they finally set out on the journey from Eastbourne to Arundel along the South Downs Way, with an overnight rest stop in between.

Luke, who walked the entire distance, said: “It was tough, but everybody was really good, we all got eachother through when we were flagging or struggling.”

As they reflected on the cause which had sparked the challenge, Luke said: “It was quite revealing of how many people have been affected by pancreatic cancer in one way or another.

“There were quite a lot of people who had lost friends or relatives.”