Eighty-year-old cycles 80 miles in a day for charity

Lin Osborn, aged 80, has cycled 80 miles for a charity cancer center

A woman has celebrated her 80th birthday by cycling 80 miles (129 km) in one day for the cancer centre that treated her.

Lin Osborn, from Basingstoke in Hampshire, celebrated the milestone birthday by raising money for the Ark Cancer Centre at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

The centre treated her last year for mouth cancer, which left her critically ill and in intensive care.

Ms Osborn cycled from Poole Harbour, in Dorset, to Basingstoke in Hampshire, and said: "The best thing was that people joined me on the way and that was amazing."

Lin Osborn and friend Alistair Craig started the challenge by the coast at Poole Quay in Dorset

Ms Osborn said her cancer was on her tongue and mouth and she had to have a 12-hour operation to remove it.

She said: "After the surgery, it really hit me, what I had been through, was as bad as it gets, worse than anything I'd been through.

"The Ark Cancer Centre in Basingstoke they were so helpful, they cared for me and they gave me hope.

"They said to me that I would never be the same again which I found very very difficult to accept.

"Then I realised that maybe change isn't always negative, so I thought something to focus on rather than focus on the bad stuff."

She was joined at the River Stour in Christchurch by friends Alistair Craig and David Curtis

She told BBC Berkshire that she "wanted to focus on something positive", adding: "I cycle anyway, I love cycling.

"I decided to do 80 miles for my 80 years, but my friend, Alistair Craig helped me with the route, exactly 80 miles and my friend David Curtis helped me train after my surgery."

Ms Osborn said she stuck to "bike-friendly roads" when completing her challenge.

"They were nice roads, quiet roads, it wasn't the A30 or anything, by the coast and through the New Forest," she said.

"The best thing was that people joined me on the way and that was amazing.

"It was quite magical really, having them all there."

Friends and family supported her along the route, including her son Alex