By Andy Hirst

The annual Pedal for Pounds charity bike ride has raised almost £90,000 split between four charities.

The ever-popular event saw 140 sponsored cyclists riding from the John Smith’s Stadium to Harrogate and back to raise £88,178 which has been split equally between the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Huddersfield Town Foundation, Huddersfield mental health charity Platform 1 and The Kirkwood in Dalton. It means each has received just over £22,000.

Huddersfield Town chief executive Dean Hoyle says there will be another Pedal for Pounds but no details have yet been released.

He added: “I’m over the moon that we can once again help all four local charities and each and every one of our 140 cyclists should be incredibly proud of the huge total they’ve helped to raise.

“As we all know only too well, times have been tough in the past few years and these charities have suffered as a result of that so it’s even better than we can donate such a welcome amount to all four of them.”

Platform 1 project leader Gez Walsh said: “We never thought we’d receive such a large amount and every penny is important in running our services which are in demand like never before. It was an astonishing fundraising effort and we can’t thank everyone who took part enough.”

Platform 1 project leader Gez Walsh (centre) and crisis lead Bridget Fahy receive the £22,000 from Dean and Janet Hoyle (right) and Andy Booth (left)

The event at the end of last season in May was sponsored by Huddersfield enamel badge manufacturer Made By Cooper and supported by a voluntary support team on the day.

Dean added: “Pedal for Pounds is a huge part of who we are as a club and supporters should keep an eye out for news of P4P11 coming in the next few months.”

* Written by former Huddersfield Examiner Head of Content ANDY HIRST who now runs his own Huddersfield-based agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging and copywriting for business in Yorkshire and across the UK.

READ MORE: Andy Booth’s unforgettable Pedal for Pounds bike rides