CHARITY cyclist Trevor Williams rolled back the years to pedal 600 miles between two of Europe's most famous landmarks.

Mr Williams, aged 57, raised £400 in sponsorship by cycling from Blackpool Tower to its French counterpart, the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Mr Williams comes from Scholar Green, and took on the cycling challenge along with fellow Congleton Cycling Club member Bob Norton.

The pair were part of a six-man team who completed the marathon in a week to raise money for the National Kidney Research Fund.

"I enjoy cycling, and we rode through some of the most beautiful countryside in England," said Mr Williams, from Spring Bank. "It was very relaxing, and it was brilliant weather the whole time."

The team's route took them via Northwich to Stourport on Severn and Oxford, on to Dorking and Newhaven, where they crossed to Dieppe before heading off to Beauvais and Paris.

Mr Williams has done several sponsored cycling events in aid of Christie Hospital, and was helped in his latest fund-raising by wife Melva and her mother Gladys Copeland, from Biddulph.

The Research Fund is the leading renal charity in the UK, where 7,000 people die each year from renal failure and one in five are born with malformed kidneys.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.