HUNDREDS of cyclists pedalled their way to raise more than £40,000 for a male suicide prevention charity.

Nelson’s Tour de Test Valley on Saturday honoured Nelson Pratt, known as ‘Nelly’, who took his own life in 2012.

Following the Grateley resident’s death, brother Chris Pratt and friend Marcus Chapman decided to organise an annual cycling event to honour him and raise money and awareness of male suicide - the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK.

The pair joined forces with charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), which campaigns to reduce suicide rates among young men.

Saturday’s sixth staging of the event featured over 900 riders from two-year-olds in bike seats to pro and ex-pro snowboarders including Olympic bronze medallist Jenny Jones who Nelly coached.

Lead organiser Mr Chapman said: “The event had a real good atmosphere. What we have seen change over the years is there is a real openness now in terms of talking about mental health.”

There were some real standout rides and fundraising efforts. Eight-year-old Max Golding raised over £1,000 by himself and trio Jonno Wood, Paul Vines, Mark Kent and Jonny Russel rode 180 miles in 12 hours for the cause.

Before this year, the event had raised around £250,000 for CALM. This has paid for 36,250 calls to CALM to be answered, which in turn is estimated to have helped prevent 1,943 suicides