SWINDON'S charity bike race raised more than £10,000 on Sunday but it also threw up heroes by the bucketload.

Foremost among them was Dave Case, the 54-year-old Freshbrook man who completed the 25-mile Great Ridgeway Ride less than four months after undergoing a triple heart by-pass.

Dave, a manager at Asda in West Swindon, also raised £1,400 in sponsorship for the British Heart Foundation on the ride, and said the morning after the race that he was feeling just fine.

"I feel quite good and I'm not at all achy, although I admit I had to go slowly and got off on a couple of hills," he said.

He said he did not feel particularly heroic after his achievement, but hoped it might encourage other heart patients to think they could do the same, or more.

"I would like to think that people would try to follow my example," he said.

"Because I think that it's an awful waste of the surgeon's skill if you are going to have the operation and just sit and watch TV.

"I have heard of people who literally do nothing after a heart op, but the rehabilitation service at Princess Margaret Hospital is so good that you can push yourself hard."

The ride's other heroes included Sarah MacKinley, an 11-year-old from Gladstone Street who was raising money for the children's cancer charity CALM after herself recovering from leukaemia.

Kingsdown School pupils Michael Peart, 12, and his brother Ashley, 14, completed the 25-mile course in memory of their mother, Sandra, who died of cancer two years ago, aged 39.

But event organiser Roger Hayes said he considered all 300 people who took part in this year's ride heroes because they were all doing their bit for charity.

The event has raised more than £100,000 for local charities over the last decade.

But it could fold unless someone else can be found to take it over now that Mr Hayes has announced he is stepping down from the role.

He said he hoped Swindon Council would take over running the event, but was not convinced this would happen.