3:30pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
A SOLDIER will undertake a gruelling cycle ride to raise money for wounded troops after seeing his own friends injured in battle.
Lance Corporal Ashley Gibbons, aged 22 and from Bromyard, is one of 12 soldiers cycling 1,000 miles with a rugby ball in seven days.
The team will pass through Worcester on the route which takes in the grounds of all 16 English and Welsh Rugby Union teams contesting this year’s Anglo-Welsh Rugby Union cup.
At the finish, they will hand over the ball which will be used in the cup final at Sixways, home of Worcester Warriors, on Sunday, March 21.
L/Cpl Gibbons, a former Queen Elizabeth High School pupil, said: “I have friends who have been injured in the line of duty while on tour in Afghanistan and the treatment they have received, both on the scene and during their rehabilitation and recovery, was second to none.
“This could only be achieved with the support of charities such as Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.”
L/Cpl Gibbons joined the Army in 2005 and served in Afghanistan in 2008.
The challenge – called the Exercise Rhino Poppy – will see the cyclists set off from Newcastle on Sunday before visiting the grounds of Leeds, Sale, Leicester, Northampton, Scarlets, Dragons, Blues, Ospreys, Gloucester, Worcester, Bath, London Irish, Wasps, Saracens and Harlequins.
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