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Cheshire diabetic cycles home - from China

23/ 4/2006

A CHESHIRE diabetic adventurer revealed how he hid his insulin needles from border guards while completing a 10,000-mile journey from China to England by bicycle.

Andy Clapperton, 26, and his travelling companion Jon Smith, 25, endured temperatures as low as -30C as they rode across the plains and mountains of Asia and Europe.

The pair's nine-month two-wheeled trip home came to an end today when they reached Tower Bridge in London to be greeted by friends and family.

Mr Clapperton, from Bunbury in Cheshire, said he felt "great, ecstatic, knackered" after completing the epic journey.

He went on: "We've done 10,000 miles, we've been through the coldest temperatures I ever hope to experience, we've been high up. And everywhere we've been the people have been fantastic, right into England."

Problems

The pair, who are friends from Cambridge University, were both teaching at universities in Beijing when they decided to take the slow route home.

Mr Clapperton said his diabetes posed few problems, although it was sometimes difficult to keep up his sugar levels and he had to hide his insulin needles in his bicycle's panniers at border crossings so guards would not find them.

He added: "We had tough times, but nothing we didn't think we would get through."

The adventurers' journey began on July 18 last year and has taken them through 14 countries.

They covered about 1,000 miles a month, passing through China, Turkmenistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Italy and France.

Last October's devastating earthquake in Pakistan forced them to change their route, meaning they had to take a detour further south through Central Asia.

As well as completing the journey, Mr Clapperton and Mr Smith, from Great Shelford in Cambridgeshire, have raised '6,500 for the charity Diabetes UK.