Postman Paul cycles for Christies

Rochdale Delivery Office charity bike ride team, Craig Nagy, Jeff Jackson, Paul Diggle, Andy Cella, Steve Giverin

A group of Royal Mail postmen are getting ready to cycle 60 miles in order to raise money for the Christie Charity.

Royal Mail encourages their staff to take part in fundraising events and they have offered to partake in match funding, up to the amount of £200. Paul Diggle said: “It all kicked off from my workplace really. I placed a poster up in work, to recruit other staff members to join me. We are all looking forward to it, the training is going really well and we are raring to go.”

Managers, Dave Barker and Adam Kirk, will be supporting the team throughout the day. Among their tasks include transporting the team to the starting point and back from the finish line. For this, Royal Mail kindly agreed to let the team use two vans.

Mr Diggle added: “I have been biking for 12 months and I often go cycling with the Sky Ride group, covering both local routes and city centre routes. I decided I wanted to do a longer ride to give myself a goal to work towards and this is for a good cause, which makes me even more determined to make it in good time.”

Mr Diggle is from the Milnrow area but is currently living in Littleborough due to a house fire, which happened on Friday 13 April. He hopes to turn his luck around and complete the cycling event in his goal of six to eight hours. Mr Diggle said: “If I achieve that at my age, it will be excellent.”

In total, 8,000 cyclists are gearing up to take part in the Manchester to Blackpool bike ride, on Sunday 8 July. It will begin at Old Trafford in Manchester and participants will make their way to the South Promenade in Blackpool.

If people would like to donate, they can do so in the Rochdale Royal Mail delivery office.