A team of cyclists have been inspired to get in the saddle for charity in honour of a man from Oxhey diagnosed with end stage renal failure.

Steve Katz, Adam Harris, Alan Cohen and Richard Selvey will cycle 237 miles from London to Paris from September 3 to September 6 to raise money for Imperial College Healthcare Charity, which raises money for five London hospitals within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Team Lemmings is raising money to thank Hammersmith Hospital for treating Alan’s brother-in-law Howard Smith, 61, from Oxhey, who has received a kidney transplant.

Howard was diagnosed with end stage renal failure when he went to the doctors to get a spot on his nose checked in May 2011. A series of tests proved it was not cancerous, but showed he had a hereditary kidney condition and he was put straight onto dialysis and put on the transplant waiting list.

After undergoing tests, Howard’s wife Sharon discovered she could be his live, unrelated, donor, and four months after the diagnosis they were both lying side by side in Hammersmith Hospital being told the transplant had been a success.

The couple now attend the Live Kidney Donor Seminars, at the Hammersmith Hospital, to help others understand and promote this relatively unknown procedure to those requiring a kidney transplant.

To sponsor Team Lemmings, visit www.justgiving.com/Steve-Katz.