DETERMINED cyclist Ray Chadwick refused hospital treatment in a desperate bid to finish his world tour by pedal power.

He contracted food poisoning in Death Valley, California after accidentally eating a bug and was warned he needed urgent treatment.

But when rescuers offered to take him to the nearest hospital - 300 miles away in Las Vegas - Ray, 28, from Dunster Avenue in Oswaldtwistle, flatly refused to go.

He said: "We had been eating in the dark and I dropped some tuna on my leg. I picked something up and ate it - I think it was an insect. When I woke up I was sick."

He and fellow cyclist David Collinge, 28, from Queen's Road, Darwen eventually reached the visitor centre at the bottom of the valley, where Ray collapsed.

"They said if I could stand up for 45 seconds they would let me go - I just made it," he revealed.

He and David, both members of Blackburn and District Cyclist Touring Club, arrived home safely.

This is the second time the pair have made the 12,000 miles round-the-world trip. The first was in 1991 when they travelled East to West from Thailand to America. This time they did it the other way around setting off last June.

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