Cyclist sets off on Siberian challenge

Mr Green believes the trip will take a year

An Essex cyclist is embarking on a 10,000-mile trip to Siberia to raise money for the hospitals that saved his life.

Stuart Green was nearly killed in a road accident in 1999, and was told he would probably lose his leg.

He now intends to cycle between the hospital in the UK that saved his life to the orthopaedic research centre in Russia that developed the device that saved his leg.

Mr Green, 47, said: "I'm hoping to raise lots of money - my target is actually £1m."

Further operations

He was due to set off on Monday afternoon from Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, where he was treated after the accident.

He would have lost his leg had it not been for an operation at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Surgeons there used an Ilizarov frame - developed at the Kurgan institute in Siberia - to keep his leg fixed while the bone mended.

Although he still needs further operations, Mr Green is now ready to take on the mammoth journey to Kurgan - which he thinks will take him up to a year.

Severe snow

"The biggest challenge is probably the weather - it can be quite severe.

"That's why I'm leaving the UK in January to try and reach Siberia when they have what they call their summer.

"But potentially I could be facing -20C or -30C, with quite bad snow, so I'll just have to take that as it comes really."

His adventure will take him through the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.