Booths Cyclo-Classic 175 ride this Friday will raise funds for Cure Leukaemia and celebrate company's 175th birthday

Staff and suppliers are getting on their bikes on Friday (July 1) and raising money for Cure Leukaemia.

Some will be cycling 175 kilometres across Lancashire visiting key Booths’ suppliers en route and others will join a relay ride cycling 175 kilometres on static bikes at the Booths’ head office in Preston.

Continuing the 175 celebration theme a team of eight will cover “Le Jog”, a 17.5 kilometre route jogging or walking from the Booths’ Riversway manufacturing site in Preston to its head office on Longridge Road, Ribbleton.

Meanwhile two senior managers have pledged to cover 17,500 metres playing three rounds of golf at a Garstang golf club.

It’s the second year running that Booths has organised a cycle event in aid of Cure Leukaemia.

Keen cyclist and Booths managing director Nigel Murray, who recently cycled from London to Paris for the charity and cycled the Tour de France course in aid of Cure Leukaemia last year, said: “We’ve got an enthusiastic team at Booths and we wanted to put together a ride that was challenging but also inclusive in order to celebrate 175 years of Booths doing good in the community. The 175-kilometre ride is the full route and there are four shorter distances which can be chosen including a largely traffic free last leg – so there’s a bit of something for all abilities.

“It's an event to motivate people to keep active, it brings together different parts of the business from colleagues to suppliers in a team-building exercise with the added motivation of raising funds for charity.”

The main ride has been named the Booths Cyclo Classic 175. Nigel, who trains on Jeffrey Hill, Longridge and in the Yorkshire Dales and Vale of York near his Harrogate home, said: “In cycling a long one day race is often referred to as a classic.”

Last year’s Booths ride was a five day tour taking in the locations of all its stores and, boosted by other events too, more than £100,000 was raised for Cure Leukaemia. This year the ride, which sets off on Friday morning from the company’s head office, will take in horticultural suppliers Arden Lea in South Ribble, Studio Bakery near Clitheroe, the Farmyard Brewery near Lancaster and Dewlay cheesemakers at Garstang.

Nigerl said: “This will be the third year we’ve done a cycling event. The first was for Lancashire Mind. Our base target is £10,000.”

Nigel revealed that one of the cyclists taking part, Sam Fletcher from Jackson’s bakery in Yorkshire, has a special reason for fundraising – his mother is currently being treated for leukaemia.

The Chief Executive of Cure Leukaemia James McLaughlin will be joining the run on Friday afternoon. The charity helps blood cancer patients to access pioneering drug and transplant treatments by funding a network of specialist research nurses across the UK.

Booths has stores across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

Donations can be made online at JustGiving and donation buckets will be available in store for the next two months. To donate via Just Giving go to

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/booths-cureleukaemia-2022

or here

For more on last year’s cycling fundraiser see here

Booths wins wine award – see here