\n This October a team from Winchester rugby club will be taking on an extraordinary challenge: cycling over 600km of the Italian countryside – all in support of Winchester Hospice.\n<\/p>\n
\n The team of 12 cyclists and 3 support has been coordinated by Rob Sanderson, the President of the club, as the Hospice has been so supportive to a number of the club Members most recently the Paterson family.\n<\/p>\n
\n Matt Paterson was diagnosed with Stage IV appendiceal cancer in March 2024 aged 47 with 4 children aged 7-16. The palliative team at the Hospice were involved with his care from a very early stage, not just to care for Matt but help prepare Amy and the children for the road ahead.\n<\/p>\n
\n Matt passed away at home surrounded by his family in November 2025. It was peaceful and he was surrounded by love. The Hospice provided exemplary service not just to the Patersons but for all the families that pass through their doors.\n<\/p>\n
\n In honour of Matt, it therefore seemed appropriate for the family and the club to say thank you to the Hospice by taking on a meaningful challenge to raise funds.\n<\/p>\n
\n WRFC are not new to such endeavours so cycling across Italy seemed a fitting tribute to Matt.\n<\/p>\n
\n A number of the team have participated in previous multi day cycling challenges but none consider themselves to be \u201cproper cyclists\u201d and with a team average age the wrong side of 60 this will be another real \u201ctest\u201d. But a challenge isn\u2019t a challenge unless it is one!\n<\/p>\n
\n This epic five day challenge covers varying terrain, with multiple ascent and descents and twisting hairpin bends through the beautiful Tuscan countryside, with breath-taking views. Covering 170km in the saddle on day 1 and some \u201chilly\u201d distances on days 2 and 3 this is the ultimate cycling challenge. Over five days, our team will ride over 600km to reach Rome to raise vital funds for the Hospice.\n<\/p>\n
\n An amazing fundraising dinner was held at the rugby club on Friday September 25 in memory of Matt and exceeded all expectations with a fundraising total standing at \u00a318,000 even before the team depart for Italy.\n<\/p>\n
\n On their return the pre match charity lunch on Saturday October 17 prior to the regional league encounter with Guildford RFC will add to the fundraising efforts.\n<\/p>\n
\n Club Chairman Steve Barrow said: \u201c What a fantastic bunch these cyclists are, having over the past four years have raised in excess of 150K for various local and National charities including some massive contributions to Motor Neurone Disease awareness and efforts to find a cure, I\u2019m immensely proud of them, especially my friend and Club President Robbie Sanderson , who is a leading light in all of these endeavours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This October a team from Winchester rugby club will be taking on an extraordinary challenge: cycling over 600km…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-786558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}