MARK Straffon, along with his childhood friend and fellow Liphook Football Club player Matthew Rothwell, have completed a charity bike ride from Petersfield to Lausanne in Switzerland in just 72 hours.

The pair raised more than £3,000 for the country’s Alzheimers Association from their efforts.

Matthew, who now lives in Switzerland and is a keen cyclist and runner, decided to create Team Horizon and invited Mark to complete the challenge and they

arrived to a large cheering crowd and a celebration party.

Team Horizon is a not-for-profit association and each year all excess money it make will be donated to their chosen charity.

As this challenge was such a success Team Horizon is coming to the UK and Mark and his wife Natalie are going to head it up, raising money for the Alzheimers UK charity.

Natalie said: “Myself and my husband both work at Petersfield Infant School, where Mark is the caretaker, so we are both very involved in the local community.

“We will be running the UK team offering weekly running sessions as well as planning some of our own amazing trips and challenges.

“We are now looking for sponsors from local businesses to sponsor our kit and we would like to invite anyone interested to join us.”

To get involved, e-mail [email protected].