A BARNT Green resident and former England footballer is attempting to raise £1 million for a centre at a Birmingham hospital through a charity challenge next year.

Geoff Thomas was diagnosed with leukaemia and given less than three months to live in 2003.

Following treatment from Professor Charlie Craddock, Cure Leukaemia's co-founder and director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital, Geoff has been in remission since 2005.

Since then, the former Wolves midfielder - patron of the Cure Leukaemia charity - has worked tirelessly to raise money for treatment, research and awareness for blood cancer.

His latest challenge is to try and raise £1 million through Le Tour – One Day Ahead, where the entire Tour de France route is cycled a day ahead of the professional peloton.

Geoff first organised the challenge in 2005, and wanted to mark 10 years since that challenge.

He is now on the look out to recruit 20 other cyclists to take part in the challenge with him.

If he manages to raise the money it will be used to increase the ability of the QE Hospital's Centre For Clinical Haematalogy to deliver pioneering treatment for patients.

This includes more research nurses, the potential to deliver stem cell transplants, and the chance of developing cures for a range of blood cancers.

Geoff said: "I owe my life to the excellence of the haematology team at the QE hospital and I have always been honoured to be a patron of this great charity.

"When I heard about the opportunity to increase the amount of work carried out by the centre where I was treated and in the process extend access to life-saving therapies for people who are in the same position as I was a decade ago, I was determined to do something to make a significant difference.

"I wanted to revisit such a major challenge and use the occasion to raise £1 million which will make a huge difference to the lives of so many patients.”

For more details visit http://cureleukaemia.co.uk.