CYCLISTS on a 767-mile charity ride made a pit-stop at a Marlow nursery to cheer on preschoolers who have gone ‘wheely mad’ in support of the fund-raising marathon.

The riding team – all colleagues of staff at Victoria House day nursery in Victoria Road – visited the centre after a day-long stint in the saddle, greeted by cheering children of all ages who had spent the morning doing laps of the garden on bikes, scooters and in buggies.

They presented gold medals to all the cyclists including manager Karen Vockins, who joined the team at a sister nursery in Reading for s 70-mile leg of the mammoth journey.

She said the fund-raising push to raise £50,000 for a new outdoor play area at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital had special significance for her team.

Karen said: “We are surrounded by happy, healthy and confident children every day at nursery and can see how important an imaginative outdoor play area is to their development.

“It is even more important for children undergoing traumatic treatments in hospital and their families supporting them on site.”

Sponsored activities at the nursery will help raise money for a children’s play area at the new Princes Eugenie House in the grounds of the hospital in Stanmore.

Cyclists on the ‘M and M Challenge’ (Miles House Day Nursery in Bath to Meadow View Day Nursery in Buckinghamshire) are cycling between each of the 47 day nurseries in employee-owned Childbase Partnership as part of 25th Birthday celebrations for the company.

Childbase CEO and founder, Mike Thompson, and Operations Director, Lynda Gostelow, who began her career with the company as a practitioner 25 years ago, are leading the cyclists.

Colleagues will join the team for regional sections of the marathon and each nursery visited is hosting their own sponsored events to boost fund-raising for the charity.

The Sue Andrews Foundation – a charitable organisation established in memory of a Childbase Partnership Director who died last year – selected this cause for the big fund-raising drive.

Supporters have been following the progress of the cyclists on Twitter @MMbike2014 and donating to the appeal on https://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Thompson17/