A pack of 700 cyclists cruised 100 miles from Bristol to London to raise money for a good cause yesterday.

The annual Action 100 Bike Ride was to help charity Action Medical Research, which funds research into a range of conditions that devastate the lives of many thousands of babies and children and their families.

One of the more unusual participants was Monty, a one-year-old Patterdale terrier/poodle cross, travelling in a purpose-built basket with his owners Richard and Helen Barcan.

The event would not have taken place had it not been for a little girl who was diagnosed with a disease 60 years ago.

In 1949, Duncan Guthrie's daughter, Janet, was diagnosed with polio, a potential killer that attacks the nervous system and can permanently paralyse muscles.

As a loving dad, when he realised how little was known about polio, he set up the National Fund for Poliomyelitis Research – now Action Medical Research.

Research funded by the charity led to the development of the 'sugar cube' vaccine which effectively eradicated polio in this country. The vaccine produced is still used today.

The charity went from strength to strength, and over the decades, focused its energies on pioneering medical research by supporting the best doctors and scientists in hospitals and universities across the UK.

As a result, Action Medical Research has an impressive track record in helping to fund medical breakthroughs that have saved thousands of lives and transformed many more.

Its successes include helping to introduce ultrasound scanning in pregnancy, the testing of the first rubella vaccine, and discovering the importance of taking folic acid in pregnancy to prevent spina bifida.

For more information on Action Medical Research or its fundraising events, go to www.action.org.uk