Owain Wyn Evans is on his way back into Wales tonight, shaken by a fall and nursing a sore knee, with his ride past £1 million.
The Ammanford-raised presenter came off his bike on a steep climb in Northern Ireland yesterday. He was still feeling it when he spoke to Sara Cox on Radio 2 this morning, Wednesday 11 November.
He told her: “Because I’m so unfamiliar with being on a bike, when I fell off yesterday it really shook me, and I still feel a bit wobbly today, and I’m just so tired as well now.”
He said he wanted to “get on the bike and see how the knee’s feeling, see how the shoulder’s feeling”.
87 miles from Birkenhead to Welshpool, with Long Mountain at the end
Day three of his ride for BBC Children in Need is 87 miles. He came off the overnight ferry from Belfast at Birkenhead and headed for Chester, Whitchurch, Wem and Shrewsbury before the border and Welshpool.
The actor Luke Evans read the route out on air again. “Wales teases him from the horizon,” he said.
He went on: “Close enough to see. Far enough to hurt.”
The sting is Long Mountain, on the Welsh side, which the actor called “a final, merciless test”.
Chester marked the halfway point of the whole challenge. From Welshpool there are still more than 100 miles to the finish in Cardiff on Friday.
Thursday’s leg takes him from Welshpool through Newtown, Llandrindod Wells, Builth Wells, Crickhowell and Abergavenny, finishing in Blaenavon, according to the BBC’s live tracker.
£250,000 from two listeners takes the total past £1 million
By 9.15am he had raised £435,115, the BBC says. At 11am yesterday the figure was £196,401.
On Vernon Kay’s show he was handed a card from two listeners, Jane and Kev, who wrote that he had inspired them to donate £250,000. “I can’t even open it, my hands aren’t working,” he said, before reading it out.
The card said: “We wanted to send you some extra strength and willpower and a little boost to help you up some hills.”
By Drivetime the total stood at £1,049,660.
Evans said: “Over a million pounds! Oh my gosh, that’s incredible.”
He added: “That is a big, big moment. That’s so much money, and I know how generous people have been and I want to thank everyone who’s donated.”
Kay, who has done a Children in Need challenge of his own, had joined Cox in the studio earlier and described what hearing a total does to a tired rider.
He said: “I think I punched the air because the pain just kind of slowly fades away for a moment when you realise that people are getting behind you.”
Paddy McGuinness was there too, enjoying the warmth, and told Cox: “Me and you in here. Owain’s out there!”
Vernon Kay in tears over Pembrokeshire’s Megan’s Starr Foundation
Later in the morning Kay was moved to tears on air after a report on Megan’s Starr Foundation, the Milford Haven charity that supports young people with their mental health.
When Evans asked whether he was OK, Kay replied: “Not really, but that’s why we’re doing it.”
Two-year-old Oliver waves him off at Birkenhead
Among those at the ferry terminal was two-year-old Oliver, with his parents Olivia and Tom. Oliver was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer, at four and a half months old and is nearing the end of active treatment, the BBC says.
The family have been supported by the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust, which Children in Need helps to fund. Evans had met Oliver before.
Further down the road, nursery children in hi-vis vests held up hand-painted “Go Owain!” signs, and Shania Twain sent a second message to the rider whose bike is named after her. “You’re impressing me MUCH,” she said.
At a pit stop in Shrewsbury the pop group Remember Monday surprised him with an a cappella medley of Britney Spears hits, and Dame Sarah Storey, ParalympicsGB’s most successful athlete, was due to join him on the road.
A live tracker on the Children in Need website shows where he is, and donations can be made through bbc.co.uk/owain. The film of the ride is on BBC One on Friday 20 November at 7.30pm.
If you are struggling with your mental health, the Samaritans are available 24 hours a day on 116 123, free of charge.
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