FOOTBALL fans have been challenged to get on their bikes in memory of a teenager who died of leukaemia.

Ardent Colchester United fan Emily Begg, from Wickford, died in 2006 at the age of 14 and every year since fans have taken part in a sponsored bike ride to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The cyclists, including Colchester United chairman Robbie Cowling and club mascot Eddie the Eagle, are setting off from Ipswich Town’s Portman Road ground on May 8 to arrive back in Colchester for the last game of the season against Leyton Orient.

Organiser Lea Finch, who went to nursing college with Emily’s mum, has called on fans to join the chain gang and add to the more than £10,000 raised from three previous rides.

She said: “It’s a great way to mark the end of the football season and the start of summer, as well as raise money for a very good cause.

“This is our fourth year and we want to make it a fixture on the club’s calendar and something that all Us fans want to be involved in.”

Lea said this year’s fundraising target is £2,000, which will be added to the £360,000 raised for the trust by Emily’s parents Stuart and Colleen Begg, who live in Wickford.

She said: “The club and fans have always been so generous to us.

“Last year we were playing Peterborough and they won to secure promotion, so their fans were really happy and just throwing money at us.”

The trust is raising money to help build and equip a new teenage cancer unit at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

l To join the riders, call Lea on 07775 762908 or to sponsor them visit justgiving.com/colubikeride4