Sponsored cycle after Peter Fletcher road crash

Peter Fletcher and Ian Sheppard completed a 780-mile ride together in 2010

A cyclist who was planning a fund-raising ride with his brother-in-law is to carry on alone after a road crash put his companion out of action.

Ian Sheppard, 48, plans to cycle 65 miles to raise money for Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance.

Kent Air Ambulance treated his brother-in-law Peter Fletcher, 51, when he was involved in a collision with a car near Canterbury on 8 March.

Mr Fletcher was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital, where he remains.

He received life-threatening injures to his head, chest and back and is still on the critical care ward, where doctors say his recovery will be long and slow.

The accident happened while he was training for a 370-mile cycle ride to raise funds for the air ambulance service.

"This accident has come as a massive shock to me and my family," said his daughter, Danielle.

"We are now determined to carry on his campaign to raise as much money as we can for the crew of the air ambulance, without whom my father would not still be alive."

Mr Fletcher, from River, Kent, is a former member of Crawley Wheelers Cycling Club and former president of Brighton Mitre Cycling Club and Preston Park Cycling Club.

He was to have cycled from Land's End to Dover in June, with Mr Sheppard due to join him for the last 100 miles.

That trip has now been cancelled but Mr Sheppard, from Aylesham, will cycle from the air ambulance helicopter base in Marden to Fowlmead Country Park at Betteshanger on 17 June, then complete several laps of the park.

The brothers-in-law completed a 780-mile cycle ride together from John O'Groats to Dover in 2010.