A group of parents are set to embark on a gruelling 500km cycle ride to raise funds for cancer charities after coming up with the idea in a pub.

The parents, who have children at Canonbury Primary School in Canonbury Road, Canonbury, will start their journey from Brest in north west France to Ars in the Ile de Re, an island to the west of the country, for breast and prostate cancer charities on Thursday.

The eight amateur cyclists named the challenge “Brest2Ars” in reference to the start and finish points.

The idea for the ride was conceived at the Compton Arms pub in Compton Avenue.

One of the riders, Lu Zurawski, 48, explained: “Whenever we went to Ile de Re, the kids laughed when they saw street signs to Ars. A friend of ours mentioned they’d been to Brest. We had a “hey presto” moment in the pub when we all thought “why not do this?”

Support for the riders has gathered momentum with famous faces, including former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon and the band Coldplay re-tweeting their seal of approval for the charity ride.

To make a donation visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/brest2ars