Edwina, who has visited Nottingham, Lincoln, Cambridge and Norwich this month, is spearheading Marie Curie Cancer Care's Great 500 Cycle Challenge, aiming to raise £1 million.
The cycle event will involve 500 cyclists taking one of five routes across Europe and converging on Warsaw in Poland, Marie Curie's birthplace.
Edwina Currie, who is taking part with her husband, John Jones, said: "John and I both know first hand the tremendous difference Marie Curie nurses and hospices can make and The Great 500 Cycle Challenge will be a fun, exciting way to support the incredible work that Marie Curie Cancer Care does.”
Edwina has had an interest in the Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Curie since she was a child and it was Marie Curie that inspired Edwina to read Chemistry at Oxford. Edwina also won Celebrity Mastermind with Marie Curie as her specialist subject and describes the scientist as her “lifelong heroine”. The Great 500 will be the third cycling challenge that Edwina has taken part in for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
The first group of Great 500 riders will leave the UK on September 9, 2006 and all riders will reach Warsaw on September 17, 2006. Each of the routes also varies in distance and difficulty so people can choose the course that best suits their abilities.
Pictured: Former Conservative MP, minister and novelist, Edwina Currie, in training and touring parts of the country promoting The Great 500 Cycle Challenge.
February 2006
