A HOUSING charity which supports families and others at risk of homelessness has raised £500 with their own cycling celebration.

The charity, called Foundation, staged its own Tour de Yorkshire warm-up recently, to help mark the charity’s 30th anniversary and to raise funds for a woodland project.

The project involves creating a rural woodland enterprise which will offer support to vulnerable young people and will to help them realise their potential. The initiative is in response to figures which show the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds in rural areas is four times that for older workers.

On April 28 staff members cycled 300 miles in two days, touring Foundation offices in Harrogate, Richmond, Durham, Darlington, Leeds and Scarborough to raise awareness for Foundation and raise funds.

The road cyclists at one point stopped off at Liberty's Health Club in Richmond. There, the local Richmond Foundation team tried to match the miles covered by teaming up with Richmond Leisure Trust and cycling on static bikes at Liberty’s Health Club.

Staff based at the Galleries hostel in Richmond cycled in relays at the gym.

Jane Branch, project manager at Foundation thanked the sponsors, saying the group managed to cycle 177 miles in three hours on the static gym bikes, raising £500 locally.