Children with genetic disorders will benefit when more than 3,000 bikers power into Margate for a lively day of activity on Monday, May 26.

Ace Cafe London has organised the Margate Meltdown in aid of Jeans for Genes. The charity supports children afflicted by genetic problems and their families and also funds research.

Bikers will arrive in Thanet over the weekend with a convoy setting off from the cafe itself for the Isle on Bank Holiday Monday. Many will camp out at Quex Park.

They will be greeted by motorbike enthusiasts on Thanet Council who hope as many local people as possible will be dusting off their bikes and leathers to greet the visitors.

Riders are expected from Europe as well as all over the UK. They will enjoy talking motorbikes, live music and trade and club stands.

There will be fundraising entertainment from the London Rockin’ Rollers, a troupe of roller skating women who will stage arm wrestles, tug-o-war, cracker eating and apple bobbing contests to gain donations for Jeans for Genes.

There will be a pillow fight and plank walking and a mods and rockers beach football match.

Ace Cafe London has a £100,000 target towards the creation of the Jeans for Genes Genetic Roadmap being created by researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

This will enable them to understand more clearly the causes of more than 4,000 recognised genetic disorders. Doctors have so far only discovered the genes responsible for 1,000 of these.

Among the welcoming committee for Monday’s rally will be council bikers including leader Cllr Sandy Ezekiel and his wife Cheryl, Cllr Alasdair Bruce, Cllr Simon Moores and Cllr Simon Brown.

The Ace Cafe on the North Circular Road was famous as a meeting place for rockers during the 50s and 60s.

Cllr Bruce said: “The Ace Cafe days of hard core rockers have faded somewhat and today you are more likely to bump into lawyers or dentists on a Harley at one of its gatherings. Something they tell me about growing old disgracefully!”

“The Ace Cafe’s visit is sure going to be a spectacle for Margate’s tourists and residents. I am glad they are coming to Margate and I’m sure if we push out the welcome mat far enough they will return. It is important to have a variety of events here.”