A son who lost both his mother and his father to cancer raised more than 700 for Imperial Cancer Research Fund racing at the now-famous Weston-super-Mare beach race in Somerset.

Pete Billingham, of Papist Way, Cholsey, joined a field of 800 riders to battle his way round the three-mile course a mile-long straight and then an energy-sapping two miles of twists and turns back again over huge sand dunes.

The annual autumn event was organised by Wessex Centre ATC and Enduro Promotions.

Pete, 34, who lost his father, Bill, to bowel cancer in 1992, and mother, Stella, to lymph cancer in 1996, wanted to raise money to help find a cure for the disease.

Racing his Kawasaki 200 on the beach was particularly brave because he was badly injured during a similar race in 1993.

At this year's event he managed to complete 12 laps across the sand dunes in three hours but not before he had fallen off a dozen times.

He described the scene as total mayhem and carnage.

"When I turned the first corner into the first dunes after the blast down the straight, there were bikes and bodies everywhere.

"Everyone had their throttle fully open to get up the sand dune, and I got a face full of sand. Some dunes were 30ft high."

He was cheered on by his wife, Sue, and a group of friends who helped him re-fuel and change goggles at pit-stops.

After each lap, marshals had to wipe the wet sand from the bikes just to be able to check which was which.

But Pete vowed to do the race again next year, and was grateful to friends and family for their "generous donations to a worthy cause".