September 26 2017

Staff and customers at ten Wiltshire leisure centres clocked up nearly 3,000 miles on static bikes as part of a charity spinathon to raise awareness of dementia. 

At the end of the 12-hour challenge, teams had 'travelled' more than 4,500km, the distance to Kiev and back, raising more than £1,280. 

The event, in aid of Wiltshire charity Alzheimer's Support, was staged on World Alzheimer's Day, September 21st, with staff, customers and other supporters taking it in turns to cycle in 20-minute slots from 7am to 7pm.

Centres competed to see which could 'travel' the furthest, and as evening approached it was clear that the team at Devizes had topped the leaderboard, achieving a collective distance of 806km. Calne was second with 727km and Springfield Centre in Corsham was just behind on 720km.

Other centres taking part were Amesbury Leisure Centre, Five Rivers in Salisbury, Nadder Centre in Tisbury, Marlborough Leisure Centre, Pewsey Leisure Centre, Durrington Leisure Centre and Tidworth Leisure Centre.

Babs Harris, CEO of Alzheimer's Support said: "This was a fantastic event and we want to say a huge thank you to the leisure centre staff who were involved in the organisation and to everyone who joined in. Some people had only gone into their leisure centre for a swim and ended up on the bikes. It was a great communal effort with some very good-hearted rivalry between the centres, and a lot of fun as well."