While most people plan to relax and potter in the garden when they retire, a GP from Cheriton Bishop has more adventurous plans. Dr Jason Clunie is planning an epic 2000-mile charity cycle ride with an ambitious charity fundraising target.
Dr Clunie, who has worked at the Cheriton Bishop and Teign Valley Practice since 1998 hopes to raise £10,000 from his cycle ride to Bari in southeast Italy.
Dr Clunie will be joined by long-term friend Olaf Wiig and the pair will set off on June 7th; just a week after he retires from the surgery.
Staying in bed and breakfasts along the way, the route will take the duo through Paris, Geneva, Lake Como, Milan, Bologna, Orvieto, Rome, Avelino and Potenza before arriving in Bari on July 10th.
The GP, who retires on May 31, is no stranger to epic charity feats. He has raised £30,000 for local charity Acorn Community Support over the years with feats including a run across Dartmoor, running the London Marathon, and cycling the equivalent uphill distance as halfway up Mount Everest.
Acorn Community Support is a volunteer-led charity that organises social trips, lunch clubs and coffee clubs and a Memory Lane Café in and around Cheriton Bishop and the Teign Valley.
Dr Clunie commented, ‘Acorn has been an important part of my GP life. The support they provide, with an army of amazing volunteers, has kept many of my patients active and engaged in community life.’
Because Acorn Community Support works closely with the GP practice, it is also valuable at alerting doctors if a patient might need medical support as well as helping patients so they can be discharged from hospital back into their homes.
‘I am pleased to be raising funding for such a worthy charity and it will ensure they can carry on doing their excellent work even though I am hanging up my stethoscope,’ Clunie said.
Dr Clunie and Olaf are keen to raise as much money as they can from their intrepid cycle ride. Donations can me made via their JustGiving web page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/jason-clunie-1715166769994