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Two Isle of Wight students are hoping a bike ride to Vietnam will help raise funds for a charity that fights a condition causing blindness.
Schoolfriends Edd Jolliffe and Alex Liddell, both 18, are using their gap year to take part in the trip from Buckingham Palace to Hanoi in Vietnam, taking in over 10,000 miles of rugged terrain in-between.
The students are raising money and awareness of the "RP Fighting Blindness" campaign, and are aiming to raise £1 per mile.
The cause is very close to Edd, who has five relatives currently suffering with Retinitis Pigmentosa, and Edd may also carry the Gene. It is a disease of the eye that leads to loss of vision and blindness and affects 1 in every 3000 people.
There is currently no cure for Retinitis Pigmentosa and apart from one or two very rare forms of RP, there are no proven treatments that slow or stop the condition from gradually worsening over time.
Edd told Isle of Wight Radio's Heather McCallum: "I wanted to raise money for RP Fighting Blindness, for a hereditary eye diesase which is genetic and runs through my family. I actually thought about the idea of cycling from one distance to the other and I selected 10,000 miles because I've got ten months really to do this, and I reckon I could achieve that."
You can find out more about Edd and Alex's charity cycle challenge by clicking here
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