MEMBERS of Ammanford triathlon and cycling club have clocked up more than 22,000 miles between them as they backed a campaign to help try to find a life-saving stem cell donor for Peter McCleave, to help him beat blood cancer.

The former Ironman triathlete was diagnosed with myeloma in March 2017 and given seven years to find a matching blood stem cell donor.

With only two per cent of the UK population on the register the 41-year-old father-of-two, from Cheshire, decided to launch a campaign to get 10,000 people signed up to the stem cell donor register.

Ammanford triathlon and cycling club (ATAC) members backed the campaign by completing a gruelling nine-day cycling challenge - within Government guidelines - to support Peter's efforts for more people to sign up to the stem cell register.

Over the nine days members were put into teams to see how many miles they could clock up on a bike, with each ride recorded on fitness tracker Strava.

ATAC secretary Alun Rees said: "With many local sports clubs taking on their own challenges during lockdown we wanted to do something of our own. With people struggling with money we didn't want to ask for donations so our chair Jason Murphy came up with the idea of linking in with ex-triathlete Peter McCleave's campaign."

Club member, Liam Bennett, took charge of organising the challenge that saw teams cycle an incredible 22,825 miles between them - which is further than Ammanford to Sydney and back.

Alun said it was the first time many of the members had heard about DKMS and Peter's story inspired them to sign up to the register and hope the challenge will inspire others to do the same.

He added: "I sent my own swab back a few days ago. There is many club members who have their own personal reasons to support the campaign and were only too glad to help.

"There was a lot of competition and banter throughout, but the highlight of the event had to be when Jason Murphy our chair and Meurig Griffiths our club captain, made a trip to the home of Peter McCleaves where they presented him with some club kit."

Following the event Peter said: "ATAC are a pretty special group whose members have gone above and beyond in not just delivering a superb challenge, but which has also done so much to further raise awareness of stem cell registration and donation. This is connection will not fade and I look forward to making my way to south Wales to say a proper thank you in person when it is possible to do so."