Richard Roff, 57, and Mary Anne Roff, 60, are embarking on the challenge, which they’ve dubbed the “Great North Ride”, to celebrate two major personal milestones, their 25th wedding anniversary and Mary Anne’s 60th birthday.

The pair, who have shared a love of cycling, say the idea felt like a natural way to mark the occasion.

Mr Roff said: “Our first joint purchase as a couple was our mountain bike tandem, so a tandem ride felt like the right thing to do.”

The journey will follow the historic Great North Road, which is the ancient highway connecting England and Scotland, and is significant for the couple in many ways.

Richard was born in the North East of England, while Mary Anne was born in Edinburgh, and her first job was in St Martin’s le Grand at the start of the Great North Road.

Many of their friends and family live on or near the route, including London, Stamford, Yorkshire, the North East and Edinburgh, so they hope some of them will join in for parts of the ride or share a drink or meal with them during their journey.

While the couple have many years of cycling experience, this will be their first endurance challenge of this scale and they chose to support GNAAS as an air ambulance came to their daughter’s aid.

They said: “We are enormously grateful that an air ambulance rescued our daughter after an accident when she was very young.  We thus have personal experience of the critical care that air ambulance services provide.

“GNAAS is our local air ambulance and we want to help ensure that it can continue to save lives across our region in the North East, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and southern Scotland.”

Ahead of their ride, Richard and Mary Anne visited the charity’s headquarters, where they met members of the critical care team and learned more about the organisation’s operations.

Mrs Roff said: “It was very interesting to learn about how GNAAS delivers its services and we were impressed by their facility and by all the people that we met. The highlight of course was speaking with Phil about his work as a pilot and sitting in the helicopter.”

The couple will begin their journey in late May 2026 and are determined to show that age is no barrier to adventure.

“We intend to prove that we are not too old for a challenge like this,” they added.

The couple have set themselves a target of raising £5,000 and those who wish to sponsor them can visit their JustGiving page here.