People who got on their bikes raised more than £11,000 for the Gazette’s appeal.

RAF officer Mark Baker of Poulshot clocked up more than £6,600 by completing a 350-mile ride.

Group Captain Baker, 47, was among 300 riders in the Big Battlefield Bike Ride in Northern France in May and June.

Group Captain Baker, married with two children, was inspired to the cause after a six-month tour in Afghanistan last year.

He said: “Raising this much was beyond all my hopes and expectations. Without my wife Amanda’s efforts we would never have raised so much, but I also have to thank the Raven pub in Poulshot which supported me with its campaign to raise funds for the charity”

Highways Agency officers swapped patrol cars for bicycles last month to raise £5,541 for the appeal.

The officers rode round the perimeter track at Buckley Barracks near Stanton St Quintin for 31 hours, covering about 2,000 miles, the equivalent of the UK motorway network.

Andy Mills, who helped organise the ride, was surprised they collected so much.

“We were hoping initially to raise about £2,000,” he said. “So we’re absolutely over the moon to raise this much. Every penny will be going to the Tidworth project.”

He added that they only just squeezed the 2,000 mile target inside the 31 hours they had set themselves. “We made it with about 30 minutes to spare.”

The officers decided to back the cause because many of them are ex-forces.

Mr Mills worked as an air load master at RAF Lyneham. A cheque for the final amount was presented to Bernice Brady of Help for Heroes last Monday.