Boy, five, raises £600 cycling 15km for primary school

A BOY from Henley has completed a 15km cycle ride to raise money for his primary school.

Bobby Chambers, five, who is in Year 1 at Valley Road School, raised more than £600 by cycling from Leander Club in Henley to Marlow Rowing Club on Saturday.

He was joined on the ride by his parents Wiz, 37, who works at Trinity Church and Peter, 34, a former Olympic rower, and his grandparents Eric and Gillian Chambers, who travelled from their home in Northern Ireland.

Bobby completed the ride in just over two hours, including stops, and the money he has raised will go towards updating the books in his school’s library.

The idea for the challenge came as Bobby’s uncle Richard works as an assistant coach to Leander’s women’s squad and his father is head of junior rowing at Marlow.

Bobby was accompanied by around eight of his friends for a section of the route from Remenham to the Flower Pot Pub in Aston. Afterwards they were presented with medals.

The family’s two Boarder Collies Brodie and Buddy also joined in and the group took it in turns to run alongside them.

The cyclists travelled towards Marlow along the Thames Path but were diverted via Bisham due to the closure of Temple Lock Bridge, which is shut due to safety concerns.

Bobby said that to practise for the fundraiser he had been on lots of cycle rides with his parents as well as riding his bike to school on Thursdays with his dad. To keep him fuelled during the journey he brought chocolate cake.

Mrs Chambers said: “Towards the end Bobby was flagging a bit but he pushed through and got it done in the end and he was very proud of himself.

“He has got to the age now where he understands now about sponsorship and was very proud of the money they managed to raise.

“It’s lovely to be able to support him. A couple of years ago we did a fundraiser for his pre-school. We did a little triathlon and then he thought of doing this bike challenge and he said he wanted to do it for his school.

“It's just nice to be able to help him see how all the gifts he has been given can be used to help other people. That's the thinking behind it all.” Mr Chambers, who won a silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics in the lightweight men’s fours with his brother Richard, said the ride was quite a challenge for someone Bobby’s age.

He said: “It’s good to get him out and it’s a good challenge for him. It’s 15km and he’s five years old so it’s good to give him something challenging to do and raise some money for his school.

“He thought that from here to Marlow was the right sort of distance. Me and my brother are fully involved in rowing and do a bit of cycling and probably Bobby gets a bit of it from that.”

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