LEICESTER legend Ila Teromaa is being given a special tribute during an 8,000-mile bike ride for charity.
Lions super-fan John Peers will set off on Monday night on an amazing journey astride his Honda NCX 750 bike to Asia to raise funds to buy a machine for Blood Bikes Wales.
The incredible ride will cover a total of about 8,000 miles taking around 25 days passing through France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Peers will set off from Beaumont Park on Monday after the clash with King’s Lynn thanks to an emotional connection with ex-Lion star Finn Teromma.
He revealed: “I was a huge fan of Ila’s when he rode for Leicester all those years ago and last year I did a solo motorbike ride around Europe and was able to finally meet my hero whilst I rode through Finland.
“Through friends of my personal friends in Speedway namely Peter Collins and Joe Screen, I managed to obtain his email address and he welcomed me to a visit to his home.
Tragically only three weeks after meeting him with an invite from him to return this year, he sadly passed away.
On my return home I vowed to do something in his name and through fate I happened upon the Blood Bikes and after obtaining permission from Ila’s wife Lena I ride with enormous pride in Ila’s name.”
Teromaa spent five seasons at Blackbird Road during which time he developed into a top rider for the Lions, scoring over 1500 points in all competitions from 189 appearances in the red and yellow.
Peers is a member of The National Association of Blood Bikers (NABB) which is a charity organisation that transports a whole range of vital products on behalf of the NHS.
Blood Bikes is 100 per cent run by volunteers who are helping to save lives every day through the blood and breast milk they carry throughout the UK by providing the NHS with out-of-hours transport saving substantial sums which can be used for frontline patient care.
Every blood bike is owned by the charity and ridden by their volunteers. Requests in one year for rapid transport of items to 262 different hospitals amounted to a staggering 35,000 medical items delivered by the volunteers.
Peers is hoping to raise sufficient funds for the charity to purchase a machine and as each bike is named after a person the plan is to honour Teromaa by carrying his name on the bodywork.
Peers’ charity ride has the blessing of the FIM Track Racing Commission of which Teromaa was a member and anyone wishing to contribute to the fund-raising for Blood Bikes can do so by logging into John’s just giving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/John-Peers5 or contribute to a collection bucket that can be located with John and his bike inside the main entrance to the Stadium.
