A bicycle made for two pink panthers!

May 26 2006 By Sam Webb, Coventry Evening Telegraph

STARTLED workers at a Coventry business thought they were seeing things when two pink panthers sped past them on a tandem.

But employees at the Lloyds Pharmacy head office in Walsgrave Triangle, Coventry, need not fear for their sanity.

Staff members Jim Whistler, aged 33, of Nuneaton, and Chris Hawthorn, aged 28, of Wellingborough, Northants, were taking part in a gruelling challenge to cycle nonstop for 12 hours around the company car park for charity.

As part of an attempt to raise cash for Cure Leukaemia, the pair started at 4am and kept going without a break till 4pm.

During the painful 12 hours of cycling, more than 360 laps of the car park were completed - the equivalent to 109 miles - and £2,000 was raised for the charity.

After completing the task, Lloyds pharmacy marketing manager Jim said: "It was a tad warm in the costume but after four weeks of training that involved cycling anywhere between 20 and 40 miles on weekends, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

"I'm delighted with the result. It was the most rewarding, yet difficult, task I have ever done.

"There were quite a lot of people watching which spurred us on and it's thanks to the support of our fellow colleagues that Chris and I achieved our goal."

The money the pair raise is going towards a fundraising trek to Kilimanjaro. Eventually funds will help build a £3 million Leukaemia Centre at University Hospital Birmingham.

John Latham, Cure Leukaemia head of fundraising, said: "It brings new hope to leukaemia patients throughout the Midlands."