An intrepid News UK trio have raised an impressive £11,000 for charity from an epic bike ride.

The Sun political editor Tom Newton Dunn, title columnist Jane Moore and News UK head of client hospitality Lorna Carmichael cycled 350 miles in five days in the annual Big Battlefield Bike Ride on June 6-10.

This Help for Heroes fundraiser supports our wounded servicemen and women. This year’s route from Ypres in Belgium to Verdun in France took in the battlefields of the First World War’s Western Front.

The gruelling route, featuring just under 200 cyclists including injured veterans, went from Ypres-Arras-Amiens-St Quentin-Reims-Verdun.

Tom, who has raised just under £5,200, said:

Over the years, Help For Heroes has become one very big and happy family, and the Big Battlefield Bike Ride is our annual reunion. It was seeing so many different cemeteries that I found most the moving part of the ride. We passed literally hundreds on our route to Verdun. They ranged from very well-known places like Thiepval, the beautiful memorial that marks the Somme’s 73,000 missing where Prince William and the PM are going in two weeks time, to tiny little plots that hold 100 or so in the corner of a field miles from anywhere. All of them still beautifully looked after.

It was only after five full days of seeing these that the sheer scale of the First World War’s immense loss eventually began to sink in. Watching today’s wounded on the ride remember their predecessors with such dedication and dignity was also very special – the bond of soldiers over the generations, unbroken.”

Lorna, who raised in excess of £3,000, said:

We were so lucky to have glorious weather virtually all the way.”

Jane, raising just under £2,800, said:

I did the ride because the funds we raise help directly to change lives. Every penny donated to those of us taking part in this bike ride goes towards helping our wounded heroes and their families with individual support, recovery centres, sports recovery, career recovery and rehabilitation complexes such as Headley Court and Fisher House.”

• They can still be sponsored at

TOM NEWTON DUNN: https://www.justgiving.com/TNDUNN

LORNA CARMICHAEL: www.justgiving.com/Lorna16

JANE MOORE: www.justgiving.com/JaneMooreBBBR