A MAN who plans to ride over 300 miles through the USA alongside a pack of Welsh rugby legends to raise cash for cancer patients has made a flying start to the gruelling challenge at Swansea’s Quadrant Shopping Centre.

Lee Venn, who runs a gym in Glynneath, spent a day on a spin bike at the Quadrant and raised an incredible £1250 for the Velindre Cancer Centre, in Cardiff.

In September the 37-year-old will join former Wales icons Jonathan Davies MBE, Martyn Williams, Mike Hall, Shane Williams MBE, Tom Shanklin, Rhys Williams and Andy Booth on the testing East Coast charity bike ride.

It will see them aiming to cover the 320 miles (515 kilometres) from Boston to New York in just five days and raise many thousands of pounds for the Velindre Centre.

Lee is in strict training for the strength-sapping challenge and is planning another eight-hour spon bike session at the Quadrant on Sunday, June 29, as he builds up to his USA odyssey.

Lee, who was born and raised in Glynneath, started his career as a greetings cards salesman in Cardiff but seven years ago decided to team up with his father and brother to open Trainstation Fitness in his home town.

When he’s not supervising sessions in his gym Lee is also an accomplished video cameraman who films at weddings and other events.

And it’s this skill which brought him into contact with some of Wales’s rugby greats who he’ll be joining on the East Coast ride.

Lee explained: “For quite a few years I’ve been doing short videos featuring former Wales players which they play at speaking engagements and other events.

“The films are humorous and have plenty of jokes in them, which goes down well with the lads and their audiences, and so I’m known to them as a bit of a joker.

“I was invited along on the ride in America by a few of them for the banter. Basically, they expect me to take the mickey out of them while we’re all riding along from Boston to New York.”

But Lee admits that although he’s looking forward to jetting across the Atlantic on September 8 to start the ride, the physical challenge will certainly be no joke.

“Some of the former Wales lads did a similar ride through California in 2012 and raised about a quarter of a million pounds for Velindre, so they tell me this one will be just as tough,” he said.

“The ride will begin in Boston, and then travel through colonial villages, rolling hills and seaside towns along the Atlantic coast. It will finish by crossing Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

“It will be five days of hard riding over mixed terrain which I understand includes quite a few climbs, so I have to make sure I’m pretty fit to complete it.

“When I was younger I used to do weight training and power lifting. With that and having the gym I’ve always managed to keep up a pretty good level of fitness.

“About three months ago I decided to get into cycling. I bought myself a decent bike – a full carbon road machine for about £2,500 – and started going out on regular rides.

“I ride whenever I have the time and have a regular route which takes me from Glynneath and back through the Valleys and Swansea.

“The longest ride I’ve done out on the road so far is 67 miles, which took me down past the Mumbles and the Gower, so to give myself some extra training and raise some money for Velindre I asked the management team at the Quadrant Shopping Centre if I could do a static ride there.

“I’m very grateful that they gave me permission to do it and, helped by my friends from the gym Heledd Williams, Kaleigh Smith and Brian Morgan who rattled the collection buckets for me, I rode for eight hours with just one short toilet break and must have done the equivalent of about 160 miles on the road.

“I raised £750 for Velindre, which included £500 very kindly donated to me by Renault Cardiff.

“Jonathan Davies, who lost both his father and his first wife to cancer, is president of Velindre and I’m supporting the centre because it’s such a fantastic place.

“I’ve seen quite a few of my family members affected by cancer so I thought raising money for somewhere like Velindre was the least I could do.”

Ian Kirkpatrick, Manager of the Quadrant Shopping Centre, said: “Lee had a brilliant day here and did really well for what is a very worthy charity.

“It’s great that he’s headed for the USA with some of Welsh rugby’s biggest names and I’m sure he’ll keep them entertained along the way as they raise a mountain of cash for the Velindre Centre.”

Lee, who is single, added: “I’ve just been given the go-ahead by the Quadrant to do another static ride there on Sunday, June 29, when I’ll be trying to do another eight hours riding and raise a similar amount for Velindre.

“I reckon this will all help me achieve the right level of fitness for the big ride in America when my fundraising target is £5,000. From the various events I’ve done so far, including other collections and fundraising nights, I’m already on £3,500 but any extra cash I can get from my latest ride at the Quadrant will help tremendously.

“I hope as many people as possible will come down and help support what is a really great cause.”

Royal composer Paul Mealor has teamed up with a top poet from North Wales for a special tribute to Nelson Mandela.

The European premiere of the new work, Spirit of Hope, will be at the Llangollen International Music Festival at a concert on Friday, July 11.

Professor Mealor, who was brought up in Connah’s Quay, collaborated with poet Dr Grahame Davies, who hails from Coedpoeth, near Wrexham.

The piece will be performed by the Wales Millennium Centre’s Only Kids Aloud Chorus alongside the independent professional orchestra, British Sinfonietta.

The special night will also see a performance by top African opera company Cape Town Opera, Cardiff Singer of the World representative Gary Griffiths, Bloemfontein Men’s Choir and the winner of last year’s Llangollen Eisteddfod Voice of the Future competition, Pontypridd’s lyric soprano Menna Cazel Davies.

According to Paul Mealor, who was commissioned by Prince William to compose some of the music performed during his and Catherine Middleton’s wedding ceremony, the Only Kids Aloud Chorus will bring the Llangollen house down.

He said: “Spirit of Hope is a three movement piece for orchestra and choir. The first movement is the setting for a poem by Wales’ Grahame Davies. He is, in my opinion, one of the nation’s best poets. His wonderful poem, Good Hope, draws its inspiration from South African landmarks.

“It so beautifully describes the mountains, plains and rugged shoreline of what is a stunning country.

“I worked with Grahame  when I composed A Welsh Prayer to mark the 65^th birthday of HRH the Prince of Wales which was performed for the first time at St Asaph Cathedral during the North Wales Music Festival.

“Grahame, who is a wonderful poet, writer and novelist, wrote the words for that piece too and they were just as emotive and joyful.”

He added: “The second movement is based around the words of Tagore, an Indian mystic poet, and is about the power of music and how music can take us home.

“The third movement is from the poem Invictus by William Henley and contains the line; I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. Nelson Mandela had this on his cell wall at Robben Island during his long years of imprisonment and we know it was a favourite poem of his.

“The whole evening will be dedicated to the memory Nelson Mandela, his legacy and the power of hope.

“It goes to show that Llangollen truly is an Eisteddfod that has peace and unity right at the very top of its agenda.

“The whole evening will be a celebration of South Africa and Wales extending the hand of friendship. And the fact that friendship will endure across the vast expanses of water that separate our two nations.

“Spirit of Hope was commissioned by Only Kids Aloud Chorus as they wanted a brand new piece they could perform on a spring tour of South Africa.

“The chorus are to perform two concerts in Cape Town with Bryn Terfel to mark the 20^th anniversary of the end of apartheid. Then, in July, they will be on stage at Llangollen for what will be a wonderful concert.

“Having listened to Only Kids Aloud rehearsing Spirit of Hope I have to say it is just beautiful and I guarantee it will be one of the absolute highlights of the 2014 Llangollen International Eisteddfod.”

Prof Mealor, who also wrote the music for Wherever You Are, the Military Wives’ 2011 Christmas number one hit, says he wrote Spirit of Hope on a Christmas break on Anglesey.

He said: “I’ve been a Professor of Music at Aberdeen University since 2003 but have always kept a home on Anglesey. I like to get back to Wales whenever I can as that’s where I think I compose my best work.”

Paul Mealor studied composition before reading music at the University of York and Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Now 38 he lectures in music at the University of Aberdeen but remains fiercely loyal to his Welsh roots.

He said: “I head back to North Wales whenever I can. There is nothing better than sitting at my piano at my Anglesey home and composing music.

“The three poems that make up each movement in Spirit of Hope are so special and awe-inspiring. I just sat at the piano and looked for the music within the words of the poems.

“I hope the audience believes my music does justice to the beautiful words of Grahame Davies, Tagore and William Henley and the wonderful voices of the Only Kids Aloud Chorus. It really will be a magical Llangollen evening.”

The curtain raiser for this year’s Eisteddfod will mark the return of opera superstar Bryn Terfel to Llangollen.

The acclaimed bass baritone will be playing the lead in a special English-language production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  He will be joined by the supremely talented tenor Wynne Evans aka Gio Compario in the Go Compare TV ads.

This year’s Eisteddfod will also feature concerts by Dutch jazz sensation Caro Emerald and veteran British rockers Status Quo as well as a world premiere of a new work, Adiemus Colores, by top composer Karl Jenkins.

He will conduct his Latin American themed work with American tenor Noah Stewart, Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores and Latvian accordion player Ksenija Sidorova to the accompaniment of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod Orchestra.

The Choir of the World competition for the Pavarotti Trophy on the Saturday night is the blue riband event of the week-long festival which will close with a Sunday night concert by Status Quo.

To book tickets and for more details about the urban dance competition go to the website at www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk