FOUR friends are cycling through Herefordshire today during a ride in memory of Ollie Thomas, who died in Afghanistan last year.

Will Gledhill, 29, Tom Harrison, 27, Arulkumaran Umapathy, 28, and Tristan Parker, 27, are cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats over two weeks and are staying in Bromyard tonight.

Tristan, Will and Tom were at the University of Reading with Ollie, who went on to become a Lance Corporal in the army.

Ollie, who grew up in Kington, was one of five servicemen killed when a helicopter crashed on a routine flight in Afghanistan on April 26 last year. He was a passenger in the helicopter.

An inquiry found human factors caused the crash.

The 26-year-old reservist from Brecon was an intelligence specialist and had previously worked for the former Brecon and Radnor Liberal Democrat MP Roger Williams.

Today the four friends are cycling from Chepstow via Kington, where Ollie's family live, and then to Bromyard to stay with Tristan's family.

Their vehicle back up is by Vikkie Chapman.

They have so far raised £4,500 for three charities which were dear to Ollie- SSAFA; United Through Sport and Raleigh International.

To sponsor them go to http://bit.ly/1eSeFZ8