Dirty Vegan's big bike ride helps save skatepark

Ric Cartwright, Mathew Pritchard and Paul Phillips spent six days cycling up to John Groats from Cornwall

A celebrity skateboarder and stunt performer has helped to save a skatepark.

Exist Skatepark in Swansea was £7,000 short of its £75,000 target when Mathew Pritchard, a star and co-creator of MTV UK's Dirty Sanchez, took matters into his own hands.

The 51-year-old performer, who has also presented the BBC programme Dirty Vegan, cycled from Land’s End to John O’ Groats in just under 60 hours over six days, and raised £9,000.

He said "skateboarding gave me everything," and so "it was nice to give back to something that has given me so much".

He started skateboarding aged 15, secured sponsorship at 21 and turned pro a year later.

Pritchard became an on-screen personality with the success of MTV stunt show Dirty Sanchez and then embarked on a string of fitness challenges from 2009 onwards.

He had already completed the route from one end of Britain to the other in 2011 and wanted to beat his seven-day personal best.

He began from the western tip of Cornwall at first light, arriving in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, at about 22:30 BST that night - with 182 miles (293 km) and 10,500ft (3.2 km) of climbs completed.

It was an astonishing first day in the saddle, but it left a mark.

"My backside had a battering and when I got back on the bike the next day it was really sore,” he said.

Mathew Pritchard raised £2,000 more than his goal

The team booked into hotels for three nights and slept rough for the remainder of the trip.

Pritchard said: "One night we got some shelter under an Aldi in Glasgow and some police turned up and moved us on."

But when the officers contacted their sergeant, he offered him a night in a police station.

Exist Skatepark will use the money to refurbish parts of the building and it will unlock a £188,000 grant from Swansea council which will help to secure a lease for the next 10 years.

The council said: "We have an in-principle agreement that £188,000 will be awarded to Exist Skatepark through a place-making grant funded by the Welsh government, subject to the skatepark raising its fundraising total."