Charity Community News

Athletes charity ride stopped due to attack in Andover

Chris Hall, an endurance cyclist began a 30 hour charity ride from Land’s End in Cornwall to Ness Point in Lowestoft, to raise money for men’s mental health, had no choice but to end the ride at the half way point last night after being “pushed off” his bike in Andover and feeling “too nervous” to continue. Stating “its frustrating but ultimately its the safest call”

Fonder of Zero Lemon, Chris Hall, has had an interesting career working for some of the largest architectural and design firms in the UK, yet dedicates a lot of his time to fundraising for charity, mainly The PACE Centre, a school that looks after 107 children with motor based disorders and Movember, a charity championing men’s health.

This April is Testicular Cancer Awareness Month, Chris has coincided this with his ‘Nuts and Bolts ride’, where he was to cycle 690km and over 6500 meters of elevation in 30 hours to raise funds for Movember.

Chris said “Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men aged between 15 and 45 – approximately 2,400 guys are diagnosed with the disease each year in the UK.

In fact, globally, men aged 18-34 are most at risk of the disease, yet 83% of them don’t know it. And while it’s rare (it accounts for 1% of all male tumours), there are still 70,000 men across the world who are diagnosed with the disease each year.

Albeit tried, Chris had reached the half way point of his 700km ride in Andover, when he was pushed off his bike by a group of men. Posting on social media Chris told his supporters “unfortunately during the night cycling through Andover I had a bunch of men decide it would be funny to try and push me off my bike. One of the group ran across to push me off, I think in attempt to steal the bike or just to have a laugh at my expense.

At this point I was probably about 350km into the challenge with close to 6000 meters of climbing. I was pretty exhausted and on the limit as it was. When I next saw the guys filming, around 10:30pm I was pretty emotional and we decided to stop and get some sleep for the night and have a think about what to do in the morning.

After a chat with a few friends and the guys filming we decided to pull the pin on the challenge. The final stats were about 400km with over 6050 meters of elevation in just over 15 hours. Quite frankly my head was not in it any more and feeling nervous on the bike and already pretty fatigued, silly mistakes can easily happen and it’s not worth the risk.”

He went on to say “Movember are all about men talking honestly about how they are feeling so I’m posting this for just those reasons. I was knackered when it happened, so things always feel a lot worse when you’re exhausted but I woke up feeling just as anxious, nervous and more than anything completely violated in my own personal space.

“I’m a big guy, 5ft 11 and covered in tattoos so it’s rare people try to intimidate me but it also means sometimes because of that I am a target when I’m on my own too. I can’t begin to imagine how it would feel for someone smaller, of a different gender or race and it truly saddens me that people can be like that.

Since the post, Chris’s followers have been deeply saddened but are full of encouragement and support for the athlete’s efforts , some posting “the irony of the fact that’s it’s statistically one or more of that group of young men that may ultimately need to benefit from yours and movembers great work.

Hall thanked his followers for “all the messages, kind words and for reaching out and checking in. It’s hugely appreciated and nice to know that there is good in the world too.” He has now confirmed that the incident has now been reported to the police.

If you would like to support Chris and Movember click the link in his Bio.