A team of dedicated volunteer doctors which carries out life-saving work in Cumbria is launching a Pedal for Life campaign, encouraging people to get out on their bikes.

BEEP Doctors (BASICS Cumbria) hope to boost awareness of the charity, raise funds and help to promote health as part of the group’s 30th anniversary year.

Founder, Dr Theo Weston MBE and five others, will cycle 260-miles around the perimeter of Cumbria while another BEEP member will cycle from Penrith to Split in Croatia.

Cumbria’s BEEP Doctors, provide enhanced pre-hospital emergency medical care, working closely with the police and fire services, North West Ambulance Service, Great North Air Ambulance Service and North West Air Ambulance. They often attend incidents and carry out emergency surgical procedures that most road crew paramedics cannot.

The charity is appealing to local businesses and individuals to donate towards their sponsored ride, which you can do via their Just Giving Page.

For the fourth year of the challenge, they have set a fundraising target of £5,000, Dr Weston said: “The aim of the ride is predominantly to raise awareness of the work of the Beep Doctors, to raise money and to highlight the area in which we operate.

“We are also doing it because we love cycling, it will be great fun and an adventure.”

Between May 24 and May 28, Dr Weston will be joined by Rob Douglas, Tim Taylor, Sean Duffy and Dave Willetts, the group is aiming to cover around 50-60 miles per day.

On day one, they will set off from the Beep Doctors’ headquarters in Penrith, and cycle through the Eden Valley, up to Aisgill Summit and Garsdale Head and then to Sedbergh.

The second day will see the group cycle to Kendal for lunch, past Levens and Grange-over-Sands to Ulverston.

Day three will take them to Broughton-in-Furness and up to the moors around Ulpha before dropping down to Gosforth, where they will be guests of the West Lakes Rotary Club.

The fourth day of cycling will take the group along the coastline, past Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport to Silloth. The challenge finishes with a 70-80m mile ride back to Penrith.

The second part of the initiative will see Dr Chris Moss, a trustee and active responder with BEEP Doctors, cycle over a thousand miles from Penrith to Amsterdam, via Newcastle, and then through Holland, Germany and Italy to Split in Croatia.

“I love cycling and long-distance cycling,” said Dr Moss, 40, “It is a great way to see the world.

“Cycling is great for your physical and mental health and functional mobility is so important, so that’s why we want to encourage people to go out on their bikes during our Pedal for Life campaign.”

He sets off on May 25 and hopes cycle between 100km and 200km each day to arrive in Split by June 15. You can sponsor him via the Just Giving Page.

Jo Blackburn, operations manager for BEEP Doctors, said: “The Pedal for Life campaign is a way of us inviting the community to join us in our celebration of 30 years as an organisation by doing something healthy during May and June.

“We are hoping to inspire as many people as possible to hop on their bikes and do a ride. It might be just a few miles as a family group or something more challenging and we want them to tag BEEP Doctors in the photographs they take and post on their social media sites or email their photographs to info@beepdoctors.co.uk and we’ll upload them to our sites.

“The campaign is also about raising awareness of BEEP Doctors and, where possible, people might choose to get sponsored for their rides and donate the money to us.”