SIR - I am calling on your readers to join the fight against heart disease by signing up to the British Heart Foundation’s 54-mile London to Brighton Bike Ride on June 18. As Europe’s oldest charity bike ride, the event attracts thousands of participants each year.

With 12 weeks to go, we're only half way to raising our target of £3 million to fund life-saving heart research so we are encouraging as many people to sign up as possible.

For the first time in the event’s history the use of electronic bikes will be permitted this year. I hope this will encourage more riders of all cycling abilities to take on the challenge.

Heart and circulatory disease kills one in four and affects seven million people in the UK. In Yorkshire around 13,800 people die each year because of it. The BHF will continue fighting against these devastating conditions. For over 40 years 814,000 cyclists have raised over £65 million for our life-saving research. The number of deaths from heart and circulatory disease in the UK has halved since the 1960s. But there is still much more we urgently need to do.

Visit bhf.org.uk/L2B.

Shonali Rodrigues, Head of Events at the British Heart Foundation