A WOMAN is planning to spend two weeks cycling more than 1,000 miles across Africa.

Jan Holland, 56, from Eynsham, is taking on the challenge despite fighting breast cancer last year and breaking her wrist in January.

Mrs Holland, a retired solicitor, will join two legs of the six-month Cycle of Hope in May, and will travel through Namibia and South Africa.

She is hoping to raise £2,300 for the Ambassadors’ in Sports Hope Academies project in South Africa, which teaches disadvantaged children throu-gh football.

Mrs Holland said: “A friend of mine who I met when I was doing charity work in Thailand is doing the whole Tangiers to Cape Town cycle ride and she sent me a fundraising letter. I hadn’t seen her for ages and I thought perhaps I would go.”

Mrs Holland was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2008 and underwent chemo-therapy, radiotherapy and a mastectomy, but has been clear of the disease since she finished treatment in August 2009.

She broke her wrist in January, which has held up her training, meaning so far she has been riding on a static bicycle rather than cycling outdoors.

She said: “My health is very good and I’m relatively fit. I’m just going to do the best I can.

“I have mentioned it to my doctors and nobody has said don’t do it, because the fitter you are, the better the chance of staying well.

“You never know with cancer if it’s going to come back but at the moment there is no trace and I am fit and will be fitter by the time I get out there.”

The Cycle of Hope ride started in December, and the core team of 10 cyclists are currently in Burkina Faso.

Mrs Holland did a cycle ride across Egypt 10 years ago, but over a shorter distance.

She said: “It’s one of those things you do as you get older.

“Life gets shorter and you need to do things while you can.”

Mrs Holland has two children, David, 23, and Emily, 27, and said her son had been inspired by her mammoth ride to carry out a sponsored cycle ride either in the UK or Ireland at the same time.

To help boost funds, she has organised a concert at St Leonard’s Church, in Eynsham, on Saturday at 7.30pm.

The Blackbird Leys Choir, Eynsham Choral Society and Eynsham Morris will perform, and Mrs Holland will also sing as part of the Oxford Gospel Choir.

Tickets cost £5 and are available from Evenlode DIY or wegottickets.com fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk