Mark Ormrod: Royal Marine veteran completes 99 mile charity cycle across Devon

  • Mark Ormrod speaks to ITV News West Country after completing the overnight challenge

A former Royal Marine and triple-amputee has finished his 99.9 mile overnight cycle challenge for charity.

Mark Ormrod set off yesterday (7 October) from Illfracombe and has been travelling through the night to Plymouth using a specially adapted hand-cycle.

He lost his right arm and both legs after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) while in Afghanistan in 2007.

Mark Ormrod was the first triple amputee to survive the war in Afghanistan.

He's raising the money for Reorg, a charity that supports service people, veterans and emergency service personnel.

He's already raised more than £500,000.

Mark said: "I feel great that we have done this. I am exhausted, the whole team are. We have been up for 24 hours now.

"We have done 100 miles and the elevation I think was 11000 metres which is insane and doing it at night when we couldn't see the top of these hills didn't help."

The bike ride is the final stage of Mark's fundraising for Reorg this year. The published author began raising money by holding a sponsored beard shave, which saw him exceed a £1,000 target within hours.

The success of his first challenge led him to take on a sponsored 5k run. While training for the race, a video of Mark falling over on his blades led to donations surging.

Mark Ormrod running on prosthetic blades during training.

A third fundraising challenge, a swim from Drake's Island back to Devil's Point in Plymouth, led to donations increasing yet further.

Despite being a triple amputee, Mark completed a sponsored swim - raising thousands in the process. Credit: ITV West Country

As a result of his charity work, Mark was recently named ITV West Country's Pride of Britain regional fundraiser of the year.