A MELKSHAM mother-of-three will brave the barren and lonely Russian landscape to raise money for a charity close to her heart.

Rachael Kilbane, 37, of Spa Road, is aiming to raise £2,500 for a national cerebral palsy charity as her 45-year-old brother Richard, also from Melksham, suffers from the condition.

Mrs Kilbane raised £3,500 for SCOPE on a South American trek last year, and wants to bring her fundraising total to more than £6,000 this year.

Leaving behind her three children, aged three, four and five, she will cycle 600 kilometres from St Petersberg to Moscow in July.

Cerebral palsy mainly affects physical movement and usually stems from lack of oxygen to the brain before, during or immediately after birth.

Mrs Kilbane said: "It is something close to me I feel I have to do. My brother is able to work but he can't do things like drive. There are varying degrees of the illness and it affected him more as a child as he could not play sports.

"He is perfectly intelligent, it is purely a physical disability."

Mrs Kilbane is holding an Auction of Promises tomorrow night, at St Michael's Church Rooms in Canon Square, Melksham at 7.30pm, to help raise sponsorship for her gruelling bike ride.

The auction will include a rugby ball signed by Bath Rugby Club players and a Lord of the Rings poster autographed by the cast of the film.

Speaking of the challenge, in which over 70 people will take part, cycling a distance of nearly 60 miles a day, Mrs Kilbane said: "We are getting a police escort through rush hour traffic and a Champagne reception at St Basil's Cathedral in Russia."