COUNTRY lovers will swap scything for cycling as they ride almost 200 miles in tandem.

Members of Abingdon Young Farmers have challenged themselves to ride a 190-mile route to the coast to raise money for brain tumour charity Blue Skye Thinking.

Their tandem mission from Abingdon to Torquay will support the 'inspirational' story of Abingdon five-year-old Skye Hall, who died in 2014 after suffering side effects of treatment for aggressive cancer.

The young farmers first heard about Blue Skye Thinking at an event last summer and unanimously decided to champion it as their charity of the year.

Rebecca Hollands, who is among eight youngsters set to hop on the saddle, said Skye as 'truly inspirational'.

She said: "We want to raise money the way that Skye lived his life; with incredible energy and imagination. Fittingly, this is a first for the club.

"Individually a couple of people in the team have done other big fundraising events such as competing in triathlons, but this is a first for the majority of the team.

"We will be aiming sky high to raise money, but will also try to raise awareness of the charity and all the work that they do to raise money for research into new treatments of childhood brain tumours."

She will be joined on Tuesday, April 18 by fellow young farmers Christina O’Hare, Isobel Mogford, David Hunt, Danny Humphrey, Verenique Beviere, Darren James and Lauren Moris.

The team will leave from Abingdon and hope to arrive in Torquay three days later in time for the national Young Farmers' Clubs annual convention.

They hope to raise £1,000 towards the charity's Aim Skye High appeal, which aims to raise £50,000 towards a three-year research position at the renowned Northern Institute for Cancer Research in Newcastle.

Skye's mum Sally Hall, who set up Blue Skye Thinking in memory of her little boy alongside dad Andrew Hall, hailed the community for its generosity.

She said: "Without local organisations getting involved and spreading the message, we would not be where we are today.

"Together we will continue to raise money for research to find better treatments for those children who need it."

The Aim Skye High project encourages fundraisers to embrace imaginative ways of generating donations.

Mrs Hall thanked the young farmers and encouraged other donors to get in touch if they also felt compelled to support the cause.

To donate to the farmers' challenge visit justgiving.com/teams/tandem2torquay.