THE Colerne charity set up after former motocross racer Mark Hucklebridge was diagnosed with inoperable cancer has now raised £100,000 for the Bath RUH Cancer Care Campaign.

Having been diagnosed in 2010 with stage four bowel, liver and lung cancer Mr Hucklebridge, 36, of Pinewood Way, decided to raise money for the hospital which is currently treating him.

The money was raised through events such as running the Bath Half Marathon, auctions and other fundraisers put on by the motocross community.

The father-of-one said: “When I got ill and saw the people helping me out it made me want to give something back.

“From then it all just naturally evolved. People have wanted to help me out.

“People started doing charity stuff like tractor ploughing competitions. We were overwhelmed with the amount of people that wanted to do stuff for us.”

After a four-year battle with cancer, in 2014 Mr Hucklebridge went for a routine scan and was told the cancer had spread, his blood levels had risen and that he would sadly not win his battle with the disease.

He added: “Two weeks ago I got in touch with Forever Friends and asked them how far we were from the £100,000 target.

“It was only £7,500 away. So I decided to write them a cheque.

“I was able to do it all through a big network of friends that I had in the motocross industry. They have been great. This is where the majority of the money has come from.

“It has gone so well we decided to set up our own charity organisation, The Friends of Huck. “Now we can put money in other places and help people out who have not been as lucky as me.

“We have built special bathrooms for people’s houses or bought special beds for people.

“On top of the money that we raised for Forever Friends we have raised between £60,000 and £80,000 for our charity.

“We started it in 2014 and our target was £50,000 in the first year. We had done that by the first half of the year.”