A cancer sufferer from Didcot will embark on an epic journey the length of Britain at the weekend to raise money for research into the disease.

Peter Fidler, 39, was diagnosed with bowel cancer last October and is recovering from chemotherapy treatment.

Despite that, he and friend Mike Brown, 46, from Stanford in the Vale, will leave Didcot on their 2,000-mile Coast2Coast motorbike ride.

The pair will travel to Land's End in Cornwall then to John O'Groats in Scotland before returning to Didcot.

They hope to raise more than £5,000 for Cancer Research UK and have pledges of more than £2,600 already.

Mr Fidler, who lives in Ladygrove, said he wanted to do something to help the doctors and nurses who had treated him over the past year.

Premier Bikes, in Park Road, Didcot, has provided two top-of-the-range motorbikes and the team have spent the past few weeks testing their equipment.

Mr Fidler, a driving instructor, said: "We're pretty much ready to go. We've got the satellite-navigation sorted and headset radios."

The pair will also be using helmet cameras to record their journey and plan to produce a DVD when they return.

But one thing they cannot test is the great British weather.

He added: "We're hoping we can dash between any showers. We don't want too much rain, as that will slow us down."

The team will start their journey at Premier Bikes' showroom at 10am on Saturday. They expect to take about a week to complete the journey, riding about 300 miles each day.

To sponsor the duo, see www.justgiving.com/peterfidler