The annual Waterford garda charity cycle is taking place on Saturday.
It's the fourth year of the fundraising event, sponsored by Affidea, which every year raises money for a different local charity.
Around 150 cyclists will travel either 30 or 70 kilometres in aid of the local branch of MS Ireland.
Garda Liam Doyle says it will be a fun event, "There's two cycles, and it's not a race, it's a charity cycle. It's fun. There will be a competitive aspect, we always have that dozen or 16 who try and beat each other, they're way up there, way beyond my levels. There's a 70km cycle and and 30km cycle, goes out Bonmahon direction, Annestown,taking in the coast and comes in by Tramore. But on the day for people who just want to come along, we're leaving from Affidea in Ardkeen at 12 o'clock on Saturday the 9th. If you want to come along, you can pay €15 on the day, we'll gladly accept it and away we go. It'll be good fun."
Affidea CEO Tom Finn said they were delighted to be involved in sponsoring the event, "We thought it would be a very good fit with what we do, in our name and nothing is more important than health. This is a particulary good event, it's the only cycle event we support and it's for an incredibly worthy cause locally so we're very happy to be a part of this."
Garda Liam Doyle explains how Waterford gardai came to be involved in charity work,"Basically it was set up originally to support local charities and we had a lady within our own work who was very ill four years ago, so we had the idea of setting up this charity. She's known fondly as 'The Duck' so 'The Pill for the Duck' is the name of the charity. It's based in Waterford Garda Station and it's always for a local charity so this year we decided to do it for MS, but for the Waterford branch of MS and all money raised will go to the local branch as opposed to the national branch."
