A twelve-year-old has visited eight South Hams fire stations over the last three days, as part of his 525-mile cycling challenge.
Andrew Impey is “obsessed” with the fire service and credit them with helping him overcome the challenges he faces with autism, so he decided to raise money for the Fire Fighters Charity.
Andrew has so far visited 1,190 fire stations in the UK, New York and Denmark, and is currently cycling 525 miles from his rugby club in Tadley, Basingstoke, to Land’s End, stopping at 75 fire stations on the way, to mark 75 years of the Fire Fighters Charity.
The ride is expected to take 14 days and he reached the South Hams at around the halfway point. He visited Dartmouth, Brixham, Salcombe, Kingsbridge, Kingston, Modbury, Ivybridge, Plympton and Plymstock Fire Stations this week, meeting fire fighters and watch managers at each stop.
We caught up with him at Kingsbridge Fire Station, just as he finished his 2.75 hour cycle from Dartmouth, accompanied on this leg by his dad Paul and Dartmouth retained firefighter Mark Peters. At that point, he had cycled 319 miles in 35 hours and 10 minutes.
His mum Kirstine has also cycled some of the legs with Andrew, and is also driving the support van, equipped with spare bikes, clothes, puncture kits and lots of snacks.
Andrew is fundraising under his ‘One Lad’s Challenge’ umbrella, which encompasses this latest challenge into other charity events he has taken part in for the Fire Fighters Charity.
The Fire Fighters Charity has its roots supporting bereaved families of firefighters killed during the Blitz, and is now a “modern day service that provides life enhancing health and wellbeing support to the whole fire community”.
You can follow Andrew on Twitter: @AndrewDaneUK or follow the hashtag #oneladschallenge