By CHRISTIANE BARRO

Thirty-two cyclists will ride 4000km from Melbourne to Cairns in December in what will be Australia's longest-ever bike ride for charity.

The 45-day ride to raise money for cancer is the work of Steer North, an Australian non-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring a new wave of active living, with a focus on cycling.

The group has so far raised more than $87,000 to support cancer research, education and patient care.

Steer North riders, aged 18 to 48, are being trained by Australia’s leading cycling coach, David Heatley, as part of a 24-week program developed by coaching group Cycling-Inform.

The program is called Couch to Steer North and is tailored so that even someone with little  physical fitness would be able to take on the 4000km journey to Cairns.

“Basically you’ve done nothing, you’ve sat on the coach and now you’ve decided to do Steer North. It goes from zero,” Steer North co-founder James Helal said.

Training consists of up to six rides each week and by the end riders are expected to have completed a total of 2000km.

Coach David Heatley said it was "a progressive loading training program” that aimed to gradually develop aerobic capacity and physical strength.

“Building up to a 350km-week is something that the average person would consider to be quite a daunting event,” he said.

Mr Helal co-founded Steer North in March 2015, just a month before losing his brother, Dr Mike Helal, to a long battle with Ewing sarcoma, a bone cancer.

“My partner (Rita Nehme) and I wanted to invest whatever energy was left into something positive. It was a way for us to respond to losing a loved one,” he said.

Mr Helal said their goal was to promote the benefits of healthy living in reducing the rate of non-communicable diseases such as cancer.

Their journey to Cairns is a way for Steer North to reach out and directly connect with different communities across Australia.

“It’s about going out there, creating a sense of excitement in every community strong enough to draw a crowd in those communities and to use that opportunity to talk about the benefits of being active,” Mr Helal said.

Steer North rider Peter Hosri said participants would require the motivational and mental durability to finish this “extravagant” ride.

“You have to keep reminding yourself the reason you're doing it and that keeps you going,” he said.

Mr Hosri said Dr Mike Helal was a constant inspiration in always stepping outside the norm and he therefore could not go past this “opportunity of a lifetime”.

“He always took the road less travelled and so I figured, through Mike’s words, I would probably do the same thing,” he said.

As part of the ride, participants are required to raise $5000 by reaching out to their local community.

Mr Hosri has raised over $4000 and thanks the Maronite community for their overwhelming support.

“Without the community, I probably wouldn’t have been able to raise that much or continue to be raising money and getting that awareness across,” he said.

The ride will be launched on December 3 from Lygon St, Carlton, and will end on January 16 next year.

Steer North is currently looking for support in arranging accommodation for the riders.

“We’ll be sleeping anywhere that pretty much has a roof,” Mr Helal said.

For more details, visit steernorth.org.au