David Blagdon, jailed for life for setting fire to an Oxford church, has successfully cycled the length of Britain to raise funds for a new Oxford Transplant Centre.
He reached John O'Groats in Scotland three weeks after setting off from Land's End in Cornwall on August 25, to raise money for the Oxford Transplant Campaign.
Mr Blagdon, 55, of Lydia Close, Headington, said he got three punctures riding more than 900 miles, and lost two stone as a result, with his weight falling from 11 stone to nine stone.
He arrived in John O'Groats on Tuesday, and has now returned to Oxford.
Mr Blagdon said: "It was a great trip, and I met some great people and had a few adventures on the way.
"One of the most tiring parts of the journey was getting the train down to Penzance from Oxford. It was a Bank Holiday, and I spent five hours standing up.
"I almost got knocked off my bike cycling through a tunnel in Birmingham, and it took me four hours to cross the Pennines. The hills were hard work and I had to get off to push.
"I stayed in campsites along the way, and when I got to Inverness, I met a man from the MacDonald clan who let me stay in his tent.
"For the last part of the journey, I went by ferry from Inverness. Now I am back home, my body has started aching and I need to put a bit of weight back on."
Mr Blagdon said he hoped to raise more than £1,000 for the Oxford Transplant Centre. He is also calling for the Parole Board to agree that he should no longer be on licence.
Ruth Davies, a spokesman for the centre, described Mr Blagdon's ride as a "tremendous achievement".
Mr Blagdon was given a life sentence in 1978 for setting fire to curtains in St Laurence's Church, South Hinksey. He has now been out on licence for almost three years.
Mr Blagdon decided to embark on the charity ride after reading about the Oxford Transplant Campaign's £5m plan to double the size of the Transplant Centre at the Churchill Hospital.
The revamped centre will include a high dependency unit dedicated to organ failure patients.
Mr Blagdon added that he was writing his life story.
For further information about the campaign, visit the website www. oxfordtransplant.org.uk
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