Pair cycle 80 miles in day for charity

THE father and uncle of a boy who died of cancer have raised more than £6,500 after completing an 80-mile sponsored bike ride.

Elliott Peto, who attended Sacred Heart Primary School in Henley, was five when he died of rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue sarcoma, in December.

Since his death, his parents Chris Peto and Aimee Day have been raising money for Elliott’s Arc, which is part of Alice’s Arc, a charity dedicated to funding research into finding a cure and less harsh treatments for the disease.

Mr Peto and his brother-in-law Gareth Elwick undertook a challenge they named “Around the Wash in 80 Days” between two beaches that Elliott had enjoyed playing on, Chapel St Leonards in Lincolnshire and Old Hunstanton in Norfolk.

The pair were both dressed as Spider-Man, Elliott’s favourite superhero, for the ride, which took them nine hours.

For most of the journey they were followed by family friend Brett Forman, a paramedic, driving a safety vehicle equipped with lights and a siren.

Mr Peto, who is originally from Lincolnshire, thanked everyone for the support the pair received. He said: “We were blessed with good weather, not too hot, wind not too strong, bright and dry. Thank you, Elliott, looking down on us.

“We had all the close family to cheer us off. It was a bit early at 7.30am, so some others joined further down the route after breakfast.

“We went to Skegness and had a group to meet us there. Then there was a long road, the A52, with lots of lorries. Drivers were honking at us and people in cars would look to see what was going on.

“At Boston we had stops at the Burton Inn and Boston United where we were joined by friends and family. It was great to have people cheering you on.

“A friend who’s a teacher got ahead of us for a photo opportunity with all the banners the kids at school had made saying: ‘Go Gareth, go Chris.’

“Then we headed to Sutton Bridge, which is the county divide and stopped for lunch.

“My mum had brought a nice buffet lunch for us all. We had to be a bit careful not to eat too much and be overloaded.

“All of Elliott’s cousins were playing in the park, as he would have liked to have done. In King’s Lynn we were on our own and the safety car wasn’t following us as we were on cycle lanes.

“We put on our masks and walked through the town centre and people would come and chat to us and lots of children were super excited to see Spider-Man.

“We took photos with the kids and told their parents why we were there.

“The next stop was the Sandringham Estate, which was lovely. I was thinking this was where we would be if Elliott was here, in the woods. He’d love it on a beautiful day. We headed up through the hills and villages to the beach next. Elliott’s cousins geared up on their bikes.

“We went along the promenade and the kids were great as they kept in formation.

“It’s special when they get together because they know each other from Elliott, our very special boy, and they all get on like a house on fire.

“We headed to Old Hunstanton, the last beach we went to with Elliott before his diagnosis. We were there in September 2020 on a similarly beautiful day.

“Everyone was there and Brett turned on his flashing lights and siren for more drama. We were fist-pumping -— Elliott would have loved it.

“We had forecast to get in at 6pm but we arrived between 4.30pm and 5pm.

“We got lots of cuddles and cheers. My mum had made some Spider-Man cupcakes and we had some fizz to toast Elliott.

“Elliott always had this saying which we never really understood. It was ‘I like your vision’.

“I don’t know what TV programme he got it from but now we’re celebrating his life and the difference we’re trying to make to funding and treatment of what he had, it has new significance.

“So I toasted Elliott: ‘I like your vision’.

“We all celebrated and got fish and chips, which seemed appropriate. Gareth and I then hobbled into cars and went back for a sleep.” Mr Peto said that riding across the finish line was an emotional moment for him.

“It has been a huge focus for me and a method of coping with my grief,” he said. “I really enjoyed it and I was ecstatic to do it for Elliott — it felt like a form of retribution on this terrible disease.

“I’m sure he would have endorsed what we were doing on a nice sunny day in a place that he loved dressed as his favourite superhero.”

The bike Mr Peto was riding, a Giant Contend 2 Road, had been bought for him as a surprise by his boss and colleagues at Rowan Forestry, the garden and estate maintenance company he works for.

He said: “It rode like the wind. It was light and fast and allowed us to perform on the day and made our presentation perfect.

“Gareth had been lent a bike by a friend who had done a similar charity fundraiser so it was great to have the support of friends. We didn’t have to worry about it at all.”

Mr Peto says he has already started thinking about his next fundraiser for Elliott’s Arc but for now he is looking forward to two weeks of no cycling.

The donation page will remain open for another month.

To make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com/page/
aimee-day-1676997354009