Charity Cycle

2 July 2014, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Two friends are hoping to raise awareness of mental ill health by completing a charity bike ride from Cardiff to Portugal.

Dan Gaskell from Llangollen and his friend Yasha Hindine from Cardiff are expecting their trip will take around five or six weeks. They'll ride from the Welsh Capital to the town of Portimao with just a few hundred pounds to spend on their whole journey. Dan said:

"We're planning on just sleeping rough in tents, getting water from streams and relying on different people to get by. Going to a place where we don't know anybody feels completely out of our comfort zone and trying to reach a goal that seems almost impossible. If we put a little faith in our friends and in humanity we'll reach that goal eventually."

And the pair believe that type of challenge is a metaphor for mental illness, as people who suffer with it never know what their next day will hold. It's something that's very close to Dan's heart:

"The charity MIND, we feel, is the perfect charity to raise money for. We have raised money for them in the past and they do a lot of good work to help people with mental health illnesses. It is also a personal favourite of mine as they have been a great strength to a close family member, and I am forever thankful for that."