When their beautiful daughter Emily Rose passed away at the age of 22, Matt and Caroline Loughrey wanted to raise £10,000 in her memory.

Within weeks they had achieved their target for children’s cancer charity Clic Sargent and seven years on, Emily’s parents, of The Avenue, St Mary’s Island, Chatham, have reached another milestone - banking an incredible £100,000.

Since Emily’s death in 2007 following a short fight with cancer, her father Matt has taken on four epic cycle rides – from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2008, Chatham to Gibraltar in 2009, coast to coast across America in 2012 and Chatham to Hamelin in Germany earlier this year.

The first bike ride set off on what would have been Emily’s 23rd birthday and ended on the first anniversary of her death. Since then, every challenge has been staged to coincide with those poignant dates.

Matt’s efforts have inspired family and friends to take on all sorts of fundraising challenges in the last seven years, from slimming to skydiving, and tightrope rope walks to talent shows.

The first event was a ball organised by Emily’s colleagues from New Look in Gillingham which raised £3,000 and in 2013, her university friends abseiled down Battersea power station.

Emily’s younger sister Jessica joined the first bike ride and ran the London Marathon with a friend last year. She also did a skydive with her friends in 2009.

Mum Caroline said: “We have been very fortunate to have shared many special events and moments, with Emily keeping us strong and spurring us on.

“We are very proud of all the achievements of Embo’s fundraisers and that CLIC Sargent continues to support others, in what was our situation. It is a fantastic charity, which as we are all aware has also helped other families in the Medway Towns.”

The fundraising will not stop here. Emily would have been 30 next year so Matt, 50, is planning another bike ride. It will be staged on the longest day of the year, June 21, and cycle the 205 miles from the East Coast of Britain to the West Coast in one day .

As always, the family know Emily will be watching over Matt every mile along the way.

Caroline said: “We always feel Emily is still very much with us, for me she is always just a whisper away.”

To sponsor Matt visit www.justgiving.com/mattloughrey/