LESS than a week from now my 16-year-old son Michael will be setting off at dawn on a gruelling two-day 192-mile cycle ride in aid of cancer research.

For the second year running he will be among thousands of cyclists from all over the world doing their bit to raise millions of dollars towards the global fight against this insidious disease.

The Pan Massachusetts Challenge – fondly known as the PanMass – is America’s single biggest annual fundraising event, with last year 5,000 riders raising a staggering $30 million for the Dana Farber cancer institute in Boston.

The institute is at the forefront of world research into the disease and cancer patients in this country as well as others have directly benefited from some of its discoveries.

For Michael the ride is a huge commitment, given that he began training while studying for his AS levels. In recent weeks he has been getting up at 4.45am, four mornings a week, to ride 30 miles before breakfast so that he’s available to fulfil his daytime volunteer role teaching young children to sail.

It’s not been easy – in one four-day period last week his bike suffered three punctures, cutting savagely into his training programme at a critical time when he needs to be building up the miles in readiness for the main event.

Add to that the requirement for him to raise a minimum of $4,200 through sponsorship and fundraising events, and you can see that it’s a tall order for someone so young. And young he is – last year he was one of the youngest people ever to complete the ride, as most of those taking part are seasoned cyclists of many years experience and standing.

But what keeps pulling him through is the fact that cancer touches all of us in some form or other, whether as a patient, a family member or friend watching a person they love fighting to overcome the disease, or someone who is bereaved.

Taped to his bike crossbar to spur him on is a photograph of his best friend’s mother, who died of leukaemia. There are four ‘captains’ of the team he is riding for – all youngsters in their teens who are fighting cancer in some form or other. None of them will be riding as they are too ill to do so, but those who are well enough will be physically there to urge on the riders when the going gets tough.

As indeed it will be for there will be times during the ride when the physical burden will be astronomical. But Michael says it’s nothing when you see what cancer sufferers can go through.

I make no apologies for highlighting my son’s part in the PanMass Challenge because at the end of the day finding a cure for cancer is what matters. This is just one effort out of millions.

But if you feel like helping Michael reach his goal log on to pmc.org/egifts/MM0423, which is his personal donation page. There is also a dedicated UK bank account and cheques can be made payable to PanMass Challenge and sent to care of Paul Homer, The Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN.

And whether you contribute to finding a cancer cure this way or any other way, thank you.

• IS THAT a ragged cheer we can hear from motorists in Oxfordshire? Is it really true that the yellow peril will be no more?

For following central funding cuts to local authority road safety budgets across England and Wales, the county council has decided to switch off its fixed speed cameras. And other local authorities are considering following suit, to the undoubted glee of opponents who see speed cameras as nothing more than a money-spinner to top up Government coffers.

Naturally, there are road safety campaigners who would violently disagree, saying that speed cameras cut road deaths and that their presence is a reminder to motorists to keep within speed limits.

That said, Department for Transport data has suggested that less than three per cent of road accidents have ‘breaking the speed limit’ as a factor. Between 1998 and 2008, when the yellow peril was at its most prolific, the number of road deaths remained fairly constant, although there was a cut in the number of serious injuries. But this, say camera opponents, is more to do with improved safety features in cars than the presence of speed cameras.

But whatever your standpoint, Whitehall’s decision to slash road safety budgets begs the question about what happens to the camera trial in York and North Yorkshire that was approved in the spring.

Will our fixed camera-free zone remain as just that? Or will the trial still be going ahead? I think we should be told.