A housing chief got on his bike for a gruelling coast-to-coast charity ride.

First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) held its equivalent of the Tour de France with chief executive Hugh Broadbent among the 10 cyclists achieving a tour de force. 

He swapped the boardroom for bike clips to tackle the 140-mile Whitehaven to Sunderland challenge. 

They are set to raise more than £1,000 for three charities - Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, Cardiac Risk in the Young and Pendlebury Hospital Leukaemia Ward. 

It's the 10th year running that staff from FCHO have done a cycle ride for charity, with Mr Broadbent taking part in all of them, and they returned to their original route this year. 

He said: "We all made it and lived to tell the tale.  We went back to the original route to see if we could do it despi8te having 10 more years on the clock.  How many more I can do I'm not quite sure. 

"Staff member Gary Livesey is involved in two of the charities as he had a son who died tragically of sudden adult death syndrome.  He is a cyclist so we put the two things together. 

"The other charity is also linked to a member of staff whose daughter has leukaemia and is being treated at Pendlebury Hospital." 

It took the group 16 hours over two days to complete the journey as much of it was off-road. 

They were supported by back-up team, and sponsored by Connaught, New Image (PR) Ltd., Lord Group, Pannone LLP, Throwers and Hamlin, Apollo Heating and Northgate Information Systems.