A group of dads donned their Lycra and took up a cycling challenge in aid of a children’s hospital.

The 14 men, whose children attend Knutsford Primary School in Watford, completed the 54-mile London to Brighton bike ride on September 17 and raised £5,800 for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Lola Bilbie, the seven-year-old daughter of one of the riders, Kelvin Bilbie, was the inspiration for the challenge after she received excellent treatment and care at the hospital for a rare form of cancer.

Adam Williamson, who also took part, explained how they wanted to do something to honour the amazing work carried out by children’s hospitals.

“We’d been speaking for a while about wanting to raise some money for charity and we decided we wanted to do something that was a bit physically challenging,” he said.

“Now we’ve done this, we’ve already been discussing the next one – I think it has whet people’s appetite a bit.

“But the whole reason is to raise money for these great causes. We’ve all seen what great work they do at Great Ormond Street and my mum used to work at Alder Hey in Liverpool so she was always around it.”

Mr Williamson said the ride was enjoyable for most people, taking them between four and a half and six hours, but it wasn’t without its testing moments.

“We’re all just normal dads in our 30s and 40s who’ve let ourselves go a bit. We play a bit of football and some of the lads are quite into their cycling but it was probably the right amount of difficulty,” he said.

“The Ditchling Beacon Hill near the finish was tough, especially after 40 miles or so, but we all thought ‘we can’t stop’.

“And the views are amazing and, after that, it’s all downhill ‘til the end so you can sort of relax.”

To support Kelvin, Adam and the rest of the dads, visit www.justgiving.com/companyteams/KnutsfordDads