A COUNCILLOR is cycling the distance from his home in Quarry Bank to John O'Groats, all from his back garden, to raise vital funds for Black Country Food Bank.

Councillor Chris Barnett has taken on the fundraising challenge to raise as much money as possible for the Brierley Hill project, which is continuing to supply food to communities during the lockdown.

He began the challenge on April 9 and has already cycled 798km of the 1034km challenge, raising £1,715, smashing his original target of £500.

Cllr Barnett, who represents Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood, said: "I haven't done anything quite like this before. I have run a few marathons before, but long distance cycling is new.

"My partner normally does a regular collection in our street for the food bank, so I had a think about what I could do instead to help."

He is riding on an indoor bike and also on rollers, which is used to train track cyclists, which sees him pedal on his road bike on a conveyor belt.

Cllr Barnett added: "Riding 50km on the ride is not a massive deal but to ride on rollers is quite a challenge because you need massive concentration and to constantly pedal, there's no coasting.

"I'm being careful, I don't want to end up in A&E!"

Cllr Barnett is aiming to complete 50km a day and hopes to complete the challenge by April 30. He is also clocking up more kilometres by delivering prescriptions to self-isolating households on his bike for Dudley CVS.

He says his challenge currently taken him as outside Inverness, albeit from his Quarry Bank garden.

To make a donation, visit Cllr Barnett's challenge Facebook page here.