Yorkshire teacher Chris Gruar won’t need to worry about long haul flights when he heads home to Australia on Saturday – he’s going to cycle all the way and will be calling in at Marlborough as he heads south to get a ferry to the continent.

The 25-year-old, who was born and brought up in Sydney, has spent the past year living in Leeds and teaching English in the Wakefield area.

After graduating from university in Sydney last year he decided to work in Britain, doing teaching supply work before taking up a maternity cover post at Castleford Academy.

On Saturday he set off to return to Australia and decided to cycle all the way to raise funds for the Association for International Cancer Research.

Mr Gruar lost his mother to cancer when he was just two years old and recently another family member was diagnosed.

The teacher said: “ “When I started looking for a cancer organisation to fundraise for, I found most were specific to one country,” he explained. “I wanted to find something more global and I thought AICR was the ideal cancer charity to support.”

He reckons it will take him at least 18 months to cycle the 30,000 km through more than 30 countries on the way home to Australia and having to keep equipment to a minimum he is hoping for local hospitality along the way.

He is expected to ride through Marlborough over the Easter weekend.