A newly married couple from Tooting, south-west London, are cycling from London to Tokyo in order to raise £5,000 for international development charity Mercy Ships.

Matt and Coco Morley, who both work for the Department of Education, have already completed more than 4,000km of the approximately 10,000 km journey and have managed to overcome challenges including flat tyres, food poisoning and even getting stuck in tar.

After being forced to delay their wedding due to covid, the couple were determined that the pandemic would not prevent them from supporting those most in need.

Coco, 31, said, “We are very fortunate that we can stop work and do this. I’ve always been interested in everything medical. I have a couple of friends with medical jobs who have volunteered in Africa to give amazing gifts to help people access healthcare. We want to help people in other countries access what we have daily, that we are so fortunate to have.”

The couple have put their possessions into storage for a year, and are travelling with nine bags including a range of gadgets such as portable battery chargers which convert the energy generated from the bike pedalling into electricity.

Although it has been hard to be away from family, friends and real beds, they are thankful for the prayer and sponsorship of their supporters.

Matt, 30, said, “They’re all sad to see us go but we have had so much helpful advice and they can track our location when they like, so that helps them.”

The couple is covering all costs themselves and will donate all fundraising to Mercy Ships. The fundraising page can be found here.