A PRINTER from near Banbury has completed a mammoth 874-mile cycle ride across the country while attempting to raise £10,000 for a local young person's charity.

John Assheton, from Milton, spent nine days pedalling from Land's End to John O'Groats in support of the Banbury Young Homelessness Project (BYHP).

His pain-staking journey began on south coast on April 12 with wife Amanda, and the pair arrived at their final destination last Wednesday, a day ahead of schedule.

So far the 51-year-old has raised £7,000 for the charity, which helps vulnerable people aged 13 to 25 to find a safe place to live and provides advice about different services available to them.

Mr Assheton was inspired to take on the challenge after his wife took on the route five years ago, and has been training since the end of last year.

He said: "It's something that I've had in the back of my mind for years.

"A friend of mine was going to cycle the route 30 years ago and I offered to do it with him, but in the end unfortunately it didn't happen."

After injuring his knee in a skiing accident a few years ago, the father-of-three took up cycling to help him recover.

While five years ago Mr Assheton drove alongside his wife to help her out, this time round their roles were reversed.

He added: "I bought an old creaky bike and my wife said what I needed was a challenge to do, and she said if I did then she would as well.

"I never thought I could do more than 25 miles a day so I couldn't believe it when I was doing 90.

"I just learnt to keep going and it's quite eye-opening to see what people like me can do."

Mr Assheton chose to raise money for BYHP after hearing about the work the charity was doing to support young people in Banbury.

He said: "BYHP is only a small charity and it does some great work.

"It helps young people who may have been let down by their families or society in general.

"It puts them back on the path to get their lives together, and because we have three children, if they were in that situation this would be the port of call they would need."

On the journey itself, he added: "I'm glad the weather was nice, but it was a lot of hard work.

"I would thoroughly recommend it, it was an extraordinary trip."

Head of business at BYHP Tim Tarby-Donald said it was the biggest pledged donation the charity had received in his time there.

He added: "Supporters like John and Amanda are invaluable to the work we do supporting young people locally.

"It is amazing that people want to push themselves to the limit to help us continue our work."

The charity requires more than £200,000 every year to fund family mediation, counselling, housing advice and employability training.

To donate to the charity go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnAssheton.