A mum is spending the summer break cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats with her two young sons, stopping at playgrounds along the way and raising money for perinatal mental health.

Ro Marshall, 36, from Barnstaple, Devon, set off on June 16 and hopes to finish in the first week of August. She is travelling with her sons, aged 1 and 4, who switch between a bike seat and trailer during the trip.

Marshall said she wanted to make the most of the time before her eldest starts school in September, while her husband is away for work for five weeks.

“My four-year-old starts school in September, so access to him is going to be more challenging,” she said.

“My husband is also working away for five weeks, and my job is predominantly online, so I have that flexibility.

“I was thinking, what can we do?

“As a family, we spend a lot of time on bikes, but I hadn’t actually ever ridden a bike like this before we left!”

The family has taken back roads and scenic routes and expects to cycle about 1,000 miles by the end of the trip. They are currently near Edinburgh.

Marshall said they average about 26 miles a day, with stops roughly every two hours to eat, play or visit natural beauty spots.

“We’re basically doing a tour of the UK’s playparks!” she said.

“The boys are around at every stop, for whatever we’re doing each day.

“We’ve had a brilliant time exploring the UK at our own pace by pedalpower.

“There have been an infinite amount of highlights, small things like just pedalling along, and hearing my four-year-old talking to me, and listening to what he says in a way that I possibly don’t when I’m distracted in everyday life.

“The highlights people expect are cycling through Cheddar Gorge, or crossing the border into Scotland, but it’s the ‘money can’t buy’ highlights, and soaking up my children and all that they are at this precious age.”

The family has taken rest days during the hottest days of the heatwave and spent nights with family or in Airbnbs, planning the trip around the children.

“Physically, it’s not been too bad, we’re doing it at a child-friendly pace, so it’s not like I’m hammering the miles away,” she said.

“We average 26 miles a day, but some days can be 40 miles and some can be 15 miles.

“We just break it up according to what’s en route, a tourist attraction or natural beauty spot we can stop and have lunch.

“The biggest challenge for my body is the stop and start.

“Sometimes I would love to finish the day, but right here, there’s something incredible we can stop and experience.

“We never exceed more than 90 minutes to two hours on the bike before stopping, the stop always exceeds the time that we’ve been biking.”

Marshall has been sharing the trip on Instagram under the handle @britishadventuremum while raising money for the PANDAS Foundation, which supports families affected by perinatal mental illness.

She has raised more than £23,000 and said she is “incredibly grateful” for each donation.

“Time on the bike is sometimes spent napping, sometimes spent talking,” she said.

“The kids are kids, they sometimes need time to have an explore or have a meltdown.

“I listen to their needs to move and change things up, I love letting them do this at their own pace.”

Read more from Talker News.