Dyfan Hughes, 17, from Llangollen, Louis Dennis, 18, from Garth, and James Thomas,18, from Wrexham are setting off today (Saturday, August 2) on a 10,000-mile cycle to Thailand.
They are doing so in memory of Tony Edge, the father of a friend, now living in Thailang who died following a heart attack six months ago.
The itrio, calling themselves ‘the Westheads’, are due to pedal away from Llangollen Football Club at 11am and reckon the trip will take them around 18 months.
Remarkably, none of them have ever ridden a bike “further than the shop down the road”.
In a joint statement they say: “We are three Welsh lads with a dream to travel the world.
“So we thought what better way than to cycle to Thailand? The only problem is none of us have ever really ridden a bike further than the shop down the road.
“The reason we are cycling to Thailand is because our good friend has been living out in Thailand for the past six months, shortly after his Dad sadly passed away from a heart attack, so we have decided to cycle to Thailand, raising money for the British Heart Foundation, in memory of him.
“Where does the Go Fund Me money go? This will go to help cover basic costs of the trip – bikes, gears, visas, food, repairs. We are funding most of it ourselves, but with your help we can go further, safer, and share more along the way.
“We have a separate donation page for the British Heart Foundation and any donations will be much appreciated.”
People can access the page raising funds to the lads’ trip via https://bit.ly/4ovyqdA, and their fundraising page for the British Heart Foundation at https://bit.ly/3HdtGbu. You can track their progress via https://linktr.ee/westheads.
The trio are cycling from Llangollen to Harwich on the Essex coast –Â where they get a ferry to The Netherlands.
They then cycle through Germany, Austria, along the Slovakia border, through Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.
They take a ferry over to Kazakhstan – cycling the whole of it, before moving down to China, into Laos and then Thailand
They added: “Think of this as backing three idiots on a mission. We will be sharing every pedal, every flat tyre, every breakdown, on social media and using the platform we build to point people to BHF and encourage donations directly
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“Can they actually do it? There’s only one way to find out. Follow along and if you could spare a few quid to help us keep pedalling we would be forever grateful.”
They are using second-hand light touring bikes – two of which were bought at Drosi Bikes, in Llangollen.Â
They will each be carrying four panniers – which will contain their clothes, first aid kits, spare tyres, sleeping bags, tents.