Charity ride for incurable illness

A FORMER Exmouth resident biked nearly 150 miles back to his old home on Sunday to raise money for the rare, incurable neurological illness his partner suffers from.

A FORMER Exmouth resident biked nearly 150 miles back to his old home on Sunday to raise money for the rare, incurable neurological illness his partner suffers from.

Ian Humphries, 27, and friend Lewis Brekon hope to raise 1,000 for vital medical research funds for charity, Ataxia UK.

Ian's partner, Katie Brown, suffers from ataxia - a progressive and genetic condition she inherited from her dad and affects balance and coordination.

And Katie has a rare form of an already rare condition - recent research shows that there are only approximately 10,000 adults in the UK with it - and although she's still walking unaided she has lost her sight.

In fact, it was ataxia's effect on her eyesight that caused her to stop working at Tesco, where Ian and Lewis also both work.

Ian said: "I've cycled this kind of distance quite recently, so Pontypridd to Exmouth is a realistic distance.

"Katie will be 25 soon and I wanted to do something a bit special for her, something that would benefit her and her dad, and in fact anyone in Britain with this horrible condition."

They have already raised about �800 and his JustGiving fundraising page will be online for another three months - so members of the public kindly wishing to donate to this worthy cause can still do so, at: http://www.justgiving.com/ianhumphries/