Widnes man completes the Tour de France while raising £23k for charity

Liam Mahoney, 33, has been cycling for 16 years and enjoys finding new ways to challenge himself on his bike.

Last year, Liam came across an opportunity to take on the ultimate cycling challenge, The Tour 21, which sees amateur cyclists complete the entire route of the Tour de France.

To take part, cyclists are selected by a ballot and are set the challenge of raising £30,000 for Cure Leukaemia, which helps fund potentially life-saving research into treatments for patients with blood cancer.

On Friday, June 21, Liam and the rest of the selected cyclists flew out to Florence, where they began the brutal route the very next day.

The entire challenge took 21 days and was completed a week before the official Tour de France race.

Liam managed to raise £23,000 for Cure Leukaemia (Image: Joolze Dymond)

“It was a massive life enhancing experience and absolutely life changing,” said Liam.

“It’s definitely the hardest challenge I will ever do in my life.

“There were some real moments where you just think

“You are pushing your body and mind to a place you have never been before, and you learn a lot about your resilience and your ability to tackle things.”

In the lead up to the route, Liam managed to raise a staggering £23,000 for the charity through his Just Giving page, and was helped by Farnworth Primary School, Wade Deacon High School and Lunts Heath Primary School hosting fundraising events.

While the challenge was incredibly tough, Liam feels that knowing the riders were helping those in needed kept him going.

The Tour 21 concluded last weekend (Image: Joolze Dymond)

“Each day, when you’re thinking this is hard and you want to stop, you literally think of everyone who is suffering with Leukaemia and the good cause that you are riding for,” he said.

“The fact that we have done it is an amazing achievement, but the fact that you’re helping to save lives as a result is much more rewarding than on a personal level.”

Overall, the group were challenged to raise £1 million, which helps fund nurses for an entire year.

Although Liam hasn’t yet reached his goal, he wants to keep pushing so that the charity can receive the vital funding it needs.

“I still want to carry on and get there because that’s the goal the riders set ourselves,” he said.

“It’s so important that we get to a million because without them and the work they do, it makes all of the work we did a lot harder if the nurses aren’t there.”