EIGHT madcap pals from East Lancashire pedalled 50 miles to raise £1,000 for charity — all on the same bike!

The group, who all dressed as martians from children’s TV show Sesame Street, cycled around Edinburgh on a unique eight-seater dubbed the ‘Conference bike’.

Adam Booth, a marketing executive at Thornton Sports, based on the Altham Industrial Estate, came up with the idea to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and a Leukaemia charity in Sheffield.

He said: “We all wanted to do something different to raise money for charity so I looked at eight-seater bikes and came across this.

“It was a great day but it was very hard work. The bike weighs 34 stone and when all of us were on, it weighed over a tonne.

"When it came to any small hills it was almost impossible to keep it moving.”

It took the group eight hours to complete the charity bike ride on Saturday before they headed home on the train yesterday.

Adam said: “We had planned to go out on the Saturday night but the ride took so much out of us that we could only manage a few drinks.

“There were a few tired bodies around on the Sunday.”

Four of the friends work at Thornton Sports, and they live in Blackburn, Burnley, Darwen and Clitheroe.

Adam said: “We wanted to raise money for a smaller charity as well, and somebody from the Memorial Trust in Sheffield rang Thornton Sports asking about a project they were working on.

“They want to build a half-way house for patients to use before, during and after support.

"It seemed like a good idea to support them.”

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