Olympic bronze medal-winning windsurfer Nick Dempsey is planning some extreme fitness training as he bids to win a World Championship title on home waters in Weymouth this September.

The Norwich-born and Peterborough-raised 28-year-old has just embarked upon a charity challenge, cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats – starting yesterday (7 June) and covering 882 miles in nine days and raising funds for the British Heart Foundation in the process.

Dempsey, who now lives in Weymouth, will be joined in the challenge by five other cyclists, an endurance runner, the supremely fit Robin Simpson who will be attempting to cycle the 1764 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End and back again faster than the existing record of six days 17 hours and a former world champion kite-surfer who will attempt to kite-surf the route along the coast.

Meanwhile Dempsey’s wife Sarah and her fellow Beijing gold medal-winning Yngling sailors Sarah Gosling and Pippa Wilson will also be involved, Gosling undertaking the ride herself while all three girls will be visiting a number of schools along the route, with their Olympic gold medals in tow, to share their Olympic stories and encourage children to lead active, healthy lifestyles.

“It’ll be amazing fitness training for me ahead of the Worlds, which is my big goal for this year,” the Skandia Team GBR windsurf star explained.

“We hope to raise £100,000 for the British Heart Foundation – heart and circulatory disease is the biggest killer in the UK so it’s the biggest thing that affects families around us.

“Sarah’s talks will hopefully also inspire kids to live a healthy and active lifestyle from a young age so that they can avoid those sorts of problems in future.”

Follow the group’s progress at www.benumber1.co.uk – you can show your support by making a donation to www.justgiving.com/benumber1lejog – 100% of your donation will go directly to the British Heart Foundation.