A WOUNDED Monmouthshire soldier is appealing for support as he takes on a national cycling challenge to raise money for Help for Heroes.

Lee Matthews, 26, of Magor, now a veteran, will be taking part in Hero Ride 2015, Help for Heroes’ flagship national challenge in June this year.

Setting off from Help for Heroes Recovery Centre, Tedworth House, in Wiltshire, he will complete the 100-mile journey to Windsor in a day.

Cycling alongside wounded heroes, thousands of supporters will be riding from the four points of the compass, including start points at the Recovery Centres (Tidworth, Plymouth, Colchester and Catterick) and will unite in Windsor on June 21 in a mass celebration of support.

Mr Matthews who served with 4 Regt Army Air Corps, thought he’d never do sport again after being diagnosed with a rare and hard-to-treat condition called visceral somatic syndrome.

For a while the pain seemed to control his life but at the start of 2013 he tried wheelchair basketball and the physical activity as well as the comradery from being a part of a team again has helped Lee to turn his life around.

Mr Matthews will be taking part in his first Hero Ride this year using a hand-cycle and is hoping other riders will join him.

“It is a way of saying thank you to Help for Heroes for all it has done for me,” he said.

“Completing Hero Ride will be another way to demonstrate you can achieve anything, no matter what your injury.

“To ride alongside fellow injured comrades, all of whom have experienced equal difficulties will be inspiring.”

The charity hopes to have 2,000 riders coming together at Runnymede Air Forces Memorial near Englefield Green, one of the largest WW2 Royal Air Force memorials, before riding together the final miles and ending at Windsor Racecourse.

To ride with heroes like Lee, sign up to Hero Ride at www.heroride.org.uk