Peak District teenagers David Cook of Baslow and Matthew Gibson of Hathersage have reached Athens, the half-way point in a 10,000 mile charity fund-raising cycle marathon through Europe.

Matthew (18) a former student at Hope Valley College and the Sixth form at Lady Manners School, Bakewell, has now returned home, as per the original plan, while David (19), who also attended Lady Manners School, has been joined for the return leg by Luke Johnson (19), of Baslow, a former student at St Mary’s School in Chesterfield and now an undergraduate at Imperial College, London.

With them on the ride back to England will be an Australian they met in Greece and who made a spontaneous decision to accompany them.

In a message from Athens, David reports: “Neither of them has done a ride like this before and they are a bit nervous about how they are going to cope.”

The trio will now head to Turkey by ferry and plan to camp every night with a hostel stop once every five days. If all goes to plan, they expect to be back in England in two months.

The ride is designed to raise cash for the Kankudibi health clinic inThe Gambia (a charity headed by Stanton Lees couple Geoffrey and Julie Henson), the road safety charity BRAKE, and the British Paralympics team.

David (right) and Matthew are pictured in Athens shortly after their arrival.