Business owner and extreme sportsman Guy Wolstencroft will take on the route of the Tour de France.

He is one of 20 amateur cyclists who will be tackling the route for the charity Cure Leukaemia one day ahead of the professionals.

The extreme team event takes place over 3,400km comprising 21 gruelling stages next June and July.

Guy, of Onchan, is both excited and daunted by the testing physical challenge as well as his goal to contribute £30,000 to the £1,000,000 fundraising target.

He said: ’However hard, tough and deep I have to go to achieve this challenge, it pales into insignificance compared to what the people who will benefit from this go through.

’Nearly everyone has been touched in some way by cancer in their lives.’

He continued: ’I’m humbled by the opportunity to support Cure Leukaemia to positively impact the lives of blood cancer patients across the UK. The North West will feel the charity’s impact with its new national focus.’

Guy, owner of Hearing Solutions Isle of Man, has a successful fundraising track record after doing various endurance events.

He completed the world’s hardest Ironman, involving a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run in the Lake District.

Guy also set up ’Fancy Sharing A Pint?’ where he asked people to register and donate a pint of their blood instead of raising money.

This achieved remarkable success with more than 12,000 taking part so far.

He then set up ’Become a Bone Idol’ where he encouraged more than 1,000 people to register their details with the DKMS stem cell charity.

Guy feels mentally prepared for this monumental challenge: ’It’s the most famous, toughest and historic race in the world and I’m sure that every single gruelling kilometre of the 3,460km race will test me to my limit!

’I’ve been training hard since August and I’m hoping this challenge will encourage local supporters from our community to get involved and help me smash my fundraising targets.’

Former England footballer and blood cancer survivor Geoff Thomas will lead the team. He said Guy’s enthusiasm and experience in taking on extreme challenges and fundraising would be a huge benefit to the team.

Cure Leukaemia co-founder Professor Charlie Craddock CBE, who treated Geoff in 2005 said: ’What this team of people are doing is extraordinary. Patients from an increased catchment area of over 20m people will have access, as a result, to potentially life-saving treatments not currently available.’

Guy is planning a series of events to encourage people to support his fundraising efforts and he is looking for sponsors.