Three Peak District teenagers are to take part in a gruelling 10,000 mile bike ride through most of the countries of Europe to raise cash for charity.

Nineteen-year-old David Cook of Baslow, a former Lady Manners School student, is devoting six months of a GAP year to ride the whole route.

He will be joined on two stretches of the journey by friends Matthew Gibson (18), of Hathersage and Luke Johnson (19), of Baslow.

Matthew, a former student at Hope Valley College and Lady Manners School sixth-former, will join David on the stretch from Calais to Athens.

Luke studied at Saint Mary’s School in Chesterfield and is now an undergraduate at Imperial College, London. He will ride with David on the Turkey to Paris leg of the tour.

They will make the journey, which has taken almost two years to plan, on specially-commissioned bikes which have each cost £1500.

The machines are particularly robust and designed to cope with any terrain as well as carry their camping and other equipment - including solar panels to power their mobile phones and global positioning system.

The trio want to raise cash for the Kankudibi health clinic in The Gambia, a charity headed by Stanton in the Peak residents Geoffrey and Julie Henson, the road safety charity BRAKE, and the British paralympics team.

David explained: “We all feel very passionate about these charities. Geoff and Julie Henson have worked tremendously hard to provide the clinic and deserve all the support they can get.

"We chose to help BRAKE because two of our school-friends were killed in road accidents and we felt that we should support the British paralympians after seeing them in action and discovering that government support for the team had been cut by 60 per cent."

David (right) and Matthew pictured this week being given an enthusiastic send-off by staff and students at Lady Manners School.

Donations in support of three charities can be made on line via the 'justgiving' sites.

For the Kankudibi clinic appeal, the site is http://www.justgiving.com/10kfor10k4jddfund

For the BRAKE appeal, the site is http://www.justgiving.com/10kfor10k

For Paralympics GB, the site is http://www.justgiving.com/eurotour2010