A former Aberystwyth University student and Llanon resident is taking part in a charity bike ride in Majorca, to raise funds for a South Wales cancer centre in memory of his father.

David Mason Hawes, 43, is taking on a three day 390km road bike ride, to raise funds for the Velindre Cancer Centre, at the Velindre University NHS Trust.

David, who works as the Head of Digital Delivery with Velindre University NHS Trust, chose to take on the challenge as he has sees first-hand the “amazing” the centre’s amazing work.

But David is also taking on the challenge in memory of his father, Andrew Hawes, who sadly died in August 2019 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in January 2019.

“In 2019, my dad passed away from brain cancer. He was a massive cyclist all my life, it’s all I can remember him doing,” David said.

“He was a really good amateur cyclist back in the day. He actually trained in Majorca around the 1970s or 1980s.

“Velindre do a lot of fundraising, they actually have a charity side of the organisation, with quite famous patrons. Jonathan Davies is their lead front man, but they’ve also got Sam Warburton.

“But they’re not just rugby players, Gareth Bale has done stuff with them, they have quite famous sporting people helping them front the charity and promote fundraising. The Majorca bike ride popped up last year. They’re doing two in April, one with Jonathan Davies and one with Sam Warburton.

“When I saw that, I thought ‘I work for Velindre and see what they do everyday, I love cycling, albeit not as much as my dad used to, it’s somewhere warm, and with Sam Warburton - so what is their to lose?’ So I signed up last summer.”

David said there are around 100 riders signed up to the trips, and all with a fundraising target of £2,500. While David has already managed to raise £2,200, he is hoping to make it to £3,000.

Neil Hawes, David’s brother, was meant to be taking on the challenge with him, however on 11 March, Neil found out he could not take part due to a back injury.

“He’s gutted,” David added, “I was gutted as well, me and my brother are really close. A challenge like this for my dad and for that cause, we were both really looking forward to it.”

While David was born in Essex and currently lives in Cardiff, he moved to Aberystwyth in 1996 to attend university. After finishing university, David moved back to Llanon in 2000, followed by his parents in 2003, and took on a role at Bronglais Hospital from 2000 to 2007. He later took up a data quality role, working nationally, but didn’t move down to Cardiff until 2009.

David said he is excited for the trip, which will see the cyclists taking on some of Majorca’s “most famous climbs, often used by many of the pro-cycling teams as part of their winter training”, including the Sa Calobra climb.

You can donate to David’s fundraising efforts here vunhst.wales/dmh-majorca-ride.