Cancer survivor to cross India's mountains by bike

Andrea Sheardown has completed a number of charity challenges since being diagnosed with bile duct cancer 10 years ago.

A cancer survivor who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, hiked to Everest Base Camp and cycled from Vietnam to Cambodia is about to set out on her next challenge.

Andrea Sheardown, 52, was originally given six weeks to live 10 years ago when she was diagnosed with bile duct cancer.

But Ms Sheardown, of Sandbach, Cheshire, is now preparing for an 800km (497miles) bike ride in India in to top the £100,000 she has already raised for AMMF - the UK's only charity focused on the cancer, known as cholangiocarcinoma.

"It's definitely not a challenge for the faint-hearted," she said, stressing it needed to be challenging as everything has been since the mother of three was first diagnosed.

Ms Sheardown said the ride from Chennai to Kochi, crossing the Western Ghats mountain range, was going to be "brutal," but she will be supported by 20 other people, including her husband.

"I'm slowly starting to paint the world purple," she said, in reference to the colour of the charity, and the number of places she has been to in her fundraising quest.

Having thought a decade ago she would not see her children's next birthday, she said she hoped her drive to move forward against the odds had inspired them.

Her team of cyclists - dubbed Andrea's AMMF Army - are set to arrive in India on Thursday, which is World Cholangiocarcinoma Day.