A WORCESTERSHIRE couple who have worked with Acorns Children’s Hospice for nearly 20 years have passed the fund-raising bug onto their family.

John and Dorothy Todd, from Stourport, have supported the hospice since the very beginning, but earlier this year the veteran volunteers handed the fund-raising over to their three sons and one grandson.

Sons Steve, Adrian, Mike and grandson Chris decided to take on the 960-mile long John O’Groats to Land’s End cycle challenge in August.

The foursome raised £8,051 for the hospice, making the couple very proud of their family.

Mrs Todd, whose husband was previously chairman of the Worcestershire Acorns Support group, said: “We are proud of them.”

The men began the ride, which is the longest point-to-point ride in the country, on August 12 in Scotland and took 10 days to complete the challenge. The group met with the family and supporters at the hospice on day seven of their trip.

Steve Todd posted about the visit on a blog documenting the trip. He said: “We made good time and were only three minutes late. Mr and Mrs Todd senior had laid on the expected spread for lunch so we tucked in.

“In the afternoon we visited the Acorns hospice in Worcester where we were met by staff, patients and Mike’s son Dan. We were made to feel really welcome and were shown some of the facilities our fund-raising will go to support. We even had a banner.”

They faced a number of obstacles along the way including having to shelter in a builder’s shed during a storm of “near biblical proportions”

on the last leg.

Carole Crowe, Acorns’ fund-raising manager for the Three Counties, said: “This was a wonderful donation.

The Todd family’s faithful support is brilliant, as it costs £750 a day per child to care for Acorns children – mostly raised from such generous members of the community.”