Cycling from London to Hong Kong for breast cancer

When Mark Wright calls himself an impulsive character he's not joking. Impulsiveness to many of us may mean that regrettable shopping purchase. For Wright, a 27-year-old Englishman, it meant deciding in a day earlier this year to do a self-supported solo bike ride from his London home to Hong Kong to raise funds for breast cancer patients.

The idea popped into his head during one of his daily 10-kilometre bicycle commutes to work, the time of the day when he says he thinks clearest. "I really enjoy my rides to work and I wanted to do something longer," he recalls.

Hong Kong was chosen as the end point because he didn't want to fly and because his job - as a senior Southeast Asia specialist with a London-based travel agency - revolves around this region. And finally, he says, because "Hong Kong is a city that everyone knows of, even a six-year-old in Iran".

Inspired by his mother, Siggi, a 57-year-old housewife diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer last year, he dedicated the adventure to raising funds for the British charity Breast Cancer Care, which played a key role in her recovery.

On April 14, Wright and his 55-kilogram travelling partner - a pannier-laden bike called Knodel (German for "dumpling") - set off from Buckingham Palace. True to his spontaneous nature, Wright carried only a compass and no maps. Most nights he camped on any open ground he could find; on rare nights he had the luxury of a roof over his head.