Ollie to cycle 100 miles in memory of Grandfather

A young boy has vowed to cycle 100 miles before his seventh birthday in order to raise funds for Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

Ollie Jamieson, of Sandwick, started his challenge in February with an aim of raising £200 for the cancer charity. His hope was to complete the mileage and raise the funds by September.

After just two months Ollie has already covered half of the distance and he has already raised nearly eight times the aiming for.

Ollie is joined on his cycling trips by his father Steven, a keen cyclist, who mentioned to Ollie that he wanted to cycle 2,016 miles in the year 2016.

This led Steven to start discussing with Ollie how many miles he thought he would be able to cycle in a year. From there the pair decided that Ollie would try to cycle 100 miles before his seventh birthday.

When discussing this with the rest of the family the father and son decided they would try to raise funds for charity as part of their target.

The family felt that CRUK was the obvious choice for Ollie because he lost his grandfather George to the disease in 2014, aged just 57.

After setting up their JustGiving page the family were overwhelmed by the support they received.

Mr Jamieson said: “Within a few days we had raised four or five hundred pounds.”

This meant that the family had raised double their intended target in under a week. With a deadline of September set for the fundraising Ollie has set his sights on raising £2,000 – a figure which they are around £500 short of.

“We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity.” Mr Jamieson said.

Ollie has also been staggered by the generous donations his fundraiser has received and wants to raise as much as possible.

He said: “It’s important to raise money to help find a cure so that no other granddads get cancer.”

The task is being undertaken in small section and Mr Jamieson explained that his son is already a seasoned cyclist who can easily tackle five miles at a time.

They clock the miles on a GPS tracking device and update their JustGiving page regularly so that backers can keep track of their progress. Currently Ollie and his father have managed around 55 miles.

Mr Jamieson added: “Our longest cycle so far is around six miles but Ollie wants to achieve a ten mile ride before the end of the year. He’s taking it all in his stride and folk have been so generous.”

Fundraising is not the only incentive for Ollie to achieve his target by September. Ollie currently rides a 15-year-old hand-me-down bicycle and his father has told him that if he achieves his goal “he might be getting a new bike fae Mam and Dad.”

To donate to Ollie Cancer Research UK fundraiser visit: https://www.justgiving.com/Steven-Debbie-Jamieson