A FORMER Royal Engineer will cycle a record 200 miles in one day to raise money for charity after he was blinded in one eye.

Ian Slack, 48, of Broad Road, Braintree, served in the Army for ten years until he was medically discharged in 1997 when he lost the sight in his right eye during a training exercise.

Mr Slack will be spending 11 hours cycling solidly at Indoor Revolution in Silks Way for a ‘knighthood’ – a title given to riders by company Sufferfest, which provides strenuous training videos for cycling and fitness.

Mr Slack, who provides IT functions for a bank, is helping to raise money for charity Blind Veterans UK, who helped his father and other veterans who have lost their sight.

He said: “My dad lost his sight two years ago through age-related macular degeneration and they have supported him.

“I was discharged on medical grounds after I lost the sight in my right eye during a training exercise. I served in the Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq, Hong Kong and plenty of other places.”

This is the largest Sufferfest knighthood attempt in the UK and will involve 12 hours on a watt bike, burning more than 6,000 calories while covering almost 200 miles.

Mr Slack said; “I started off cycling at Xpect gym in August 2013. They somehow persuaded me to go to a spinning class, then I won some vouchers for a shop and went in there to buy new spinning shoes and was talked into buying a bike.

“I cycle about 300km a week and so far this year I’ve spent 302 hours on the bike.

“Normally you would do one cycling session or a couple of smaller ones, but we are doing ten back-to-back.

“It will be about 11 hours of solid cycling, so it’s an awful long time.

“I’m raising money for a charity called Blind Veterans UK, which is a forces charity that looks after anyone that has served in the armed forces who has suffered sight loss of any kind.”

To sponsor Ian, visit justgiving.com/imslack