A SCHOOLBOY from Bury will embark on an ambitious cycle ride over the upcoming half term break to raise money for a cancer charity.

Dan Norton, aged 12, was looking for a new challenge when he decided to cycle 120km over six days to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.

A fitness fanatic, Dan will pedal more than 70 miles at his gym, where he hopes to raise awareness of prostate cancer after his grandad, Peter Gledhill, died from the disease two years ago.

With less than a week to go before he embarks his cycle, Dan has already smashed his original fundraising target of £100.

Now, he hopes sponsors will help to get his total to £500.

Dan’s mum, Holly Gledhill, says his challenge has made his family and friends “really proud".

Bury Times:

Holly said: “We went for walk a few weeks ago and we were chatting, and he decided he wanted a new challenge, we so came up with wanting to do this cycle.

“We’re doing it over half term so that he’s got six solid days where he can just do 20km a day, it’s a total of 120km, so he’s not got school at the same time, so he won’t be too tired”.

Holly said the charity was the “obvious choice” and they that they have even sent him a t-shirt and banner for his journey.

She added: “When we thought about what charity to do it for, he decided on Prostate Cancer UK because my dad unfortunately passed away with Prostate Cancer in December 2020.

“It was a typical grandson and grandfather relationship, it’s affected us all quite a lot that he’s not here anymore.

“(The fundraiser) is really nice for my mum, to know what we’re all still thinking about my dad.”

Dan has had a great reaction from his family and classmates about his cycle ride, gaining lots of praise from his teachers.

“He wants to be able to stop prostate cancer,” added Holly.

“I think if he could just help somebody, going towards getting treatment or a cure or more treatment to be able to find out if you’ve got it earlier.

“I think he just wants to help and do anything he can to maybe save even one person’s life.

“If you’ve helped to save one person’s life, you’ve done a good thing.”

If you'd like to donate to Dan's fundraiser, you can do so on his Just Giving page.