FOR more than 40 years George Bradbury has dreamt of going on a pilgrimage to the reputed burial place of the apostle St James in Santiago de Compostela, north western Spain.

Now he is going to do it. On a bike! All 2,500 miles of it! And it is all a big change from his last adventure when he travelled through the Arctic wastes of Norway on a dog sled.

George, who works for Bury-based Pennine Telecom, is taking a sabbatical at the end of April to pedal solo from his home through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, France, and finally over the Pyrenees following the old pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. He plans to complete the trip in two months doing 50 miles a day.

"I'm not making the journey for any religious reasons but see the trip as a spiritual adventure," says George, who is senior account manager with the Salford Street telecoms company.

He first thought of the pilgrimage in 1965 when he saw a TV programme on Santiago de Compostela which showed people walking, cycling and horse riding along the Spanish Pilgrimage route. "It immediately inspired me and I thought I'd like to do that one day," he said.

Shortly afterwards George visited his local library to look up the Santiago pilgrimage in more detail. He went on: "I still remember the visit well. On entering the library I was immediately taken in by the paintings and then became completely distracted.

"I ended up in the mathematics section trying to resolve some college course work on negative numbers. I had completely forgotten the reason for my visit!

"I picked up a series of maths books from the shelves and something fell out from one of them. It turned out to be a serviette from a restaurant in Santiago de Compostela. I still vividly remember the chilling moment which has stayed with me and made me determined to become a pilgrim."

His ambition was put on hold while he carved out a successful career, first with BT and then with Pennine. Then, following his Norwegian adventure when he raised sponsorship for the Scott Polar Research Institute, George decided the time was right to fulfil his life-long ambition and raise some more money for another good cause.

This time he has chosen the Daystar School in Hoima, Uganda, a charity supported by Pennine's managing director Andrew Roberts.

The school educates 12 to 30-year-old students up to A-level standard and children travel hundreds of miles to try to get a place at the school, although educational equipment is scarce.

George is raising money to buy a plot of land to create a farm to teach the children how to grow and produce food.

George continued: "This cycling challenge has been my lifelong ambition and by raising sponsorship the children at Daystar School can benefit. A farm would make such a difference to their lives. It would mean that they would be able to sustain both the school and local community."

Readers can track George's progress along the route with daily blogs on www.crazy george.org If you would like to offer your support to George then you can pledge sponsorship online or alternatively contact Belinda McGee on 0161 763 2000 for a sponsorship pack.