Four doctors who met at Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske are preparing to test their own strength and fitness by cycling from London to Paris this year.

‘Team SHERU’ made up of Sarah Benjamin, Harjeet Sahota, Emma Keohane and Rachel Chiumento are raising the money for causes close to their hearts within the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust Charity.

Sarah, a GP trainee in Fowey, is raising money for the West Cornwall Memory Café, which runs initiatives to improve care for patients with dementia and memory loss, including in Helston, Mullion and Penzance.

Harj, an elder care registrar is raising money for the elder care department at Treliske, while Emma, an emergency department registrar, is raising money for the ED at the hospital and is hoping to avoid a trip to her own department after a previous mishap when she forgot she was clipped in to her bike.

Rachel, a paediatric intensive care registrar, is raising money for the paediatric team at RCHT.

SHERU, which means ‘lion’ in Punjabi, is an acronym that has been made up using the first letters of each of the riders’ first names and the letter ‘U’, which stands for ‘you, the reader’.

Sarah said: “We are setting ourselves the challenge of riding from London to Paris, but we are also looking for support from local people and we will be setting them their own challenge, which we hope will encourage people to be more active.”

Instead of standard sponsorship the racers are asking for members of the public to donate £10 to take on a challenge of their own, starting in March and ending in October.

The team have set up a series of challenges over the next nine months, to encourage people to fundraise by getting active.

Each month they will set a distance to be achieved in any active way participants choose: be it running, walking, swimming – even egg and spoon.

The first challenge, during March, is 7km, with the distance increasing by 2km a month, culminating in a half marathon distance (21km) in October.

The team will be asking participants to simply drop them an email to confirm that the distances have been achieved each month.

Any donators who complete the challenge will earn themselves a bespoke locally printed 3D medal of a lion.

To take part or donate visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SheruLions