This year’s Macmillan Ride of their Lives 2018 will feature three amateur riders from Ryedale. We are featuring each rider. This week it’s Jeremy Corkell, from Sinnington. DAVID MACKIE reports

JEREMY Corkell successfully entered the Macmillan Ride of the Lives race last year and was due to take to the course in June.

Then, four weeks before the event, he was kicked by a horse. It broke his arm.

The unfortunate incident meant that Jeremy, 50, from Sinnington, had to pull out of the race.

However, this summer he will finally get to take up the reins of one the thoroughbred race horses in the charity ride in front of tens of thousands of people at York racecourse.

Jeremy has had a lot of riding experience, having worked in the racing world for 33 years.

Working with Tim Easterby, he’s held a huge number of roles from stable hand to assistant trainer to travelling head lad.

But the Best Western & Macmillan Ride of the Lives is something he’s been wanting to do for a while. He’s never ridden in front of such a crowd.

“It’s taken me more than three years to get in,” he said. “My mother worked for Marie Curie. The amount of work she did when I was a kid - it was 6am until 6pm.

"The way she dealt with people with cancer was unbelievable. It takes a certain kind of person.”

He’s also had family members and friends affected by cancer - most recently Malcolm Jefferson, the Norton trainer who died earlier this month.

Like all the riders, Jeremy is currently in training. The next stage will be a fitness test in Doncaster in March.

All of the 11 riders in the race are fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity which helps and supports people with cancer and their families.

Jeremy has a charity quiz night coming up at Spencer’s Bar and Grill in Pickering on Saturday, with £50 and donated champagne for the winner.

There will also, he says, be a frog racing night, a game involving pulling wooden cut-out frogs on a length of rope.

The details are still to be worked out, but he added: “It’s really entertaining.”

To donate, please go to justgiving.com/fundraising/jeremy-corkell2.