THREE former Worcester students have been learning to ride motorbikes ready for a 7,000 mile journey across Europe.

Mike Finlay, Sarah Lonbay and Flick Copp, who all attended King's School, Worcester, will be joined by friend Mikey Mansergh for the epic trip later this year.

They will travel 7,631 miles across 26 countries and 30 borders.

Mr Finlay, aged 25, said: "The idea came about when Mikey, who Sarah and I had met while working for a watersports company in France, e-mailed us looking for friends to accompany him on a ride to Greece and back - the small issue being that he had no licence. Sarah and I jumped at the opportunity and I discussed the idea of extending the route and doing the ride for charity. I came back with some route plans at around the same time we'd confirmed that Flick Copp would join the team.

"We have all wanted to ride before but never found the time or money to complete our full motorbike training. This seemed like the perfect chance to learn and gain huge experience whilehelping our some causes that were close to our hearts. The ride was born and support grew quickly, including Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman who sent us signed copies of the book The Long Way Round to raffle off."

The riders have been training with Phoenix Motorcycle School, official sponsor to the ride. The firm is taking the team through full tests, including over £4,000 worth of training on and off-road over the coming weeks.

The ride will start from Stonehenge at 7am on Friday, August 1. The team will ride north to Newcastle before taking an overnight ferry into Stavanger, Norway.

From here, the ride will travel north into the Arctic Circle before beginning its clockwise loop south east through Sweden, Finland, Russia, and South and Eastern Europe.

Mr Finlay said: "Arriving in Turkey, we will turn west into Greece and north along the Adriatic through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia. From here we will head through northern Italy into France and on to Andorra, Spain and Portugal our final leg towards Calais via Madrid and Biarritz."

The group is raising funds for Unicef, Help the Aged and the RNLI. They are currently hosting a range of fund-raising events, including an online competition to win one of the team's BMW F650 motorbikes.