An employee of wealth manager St James's Place - once bed-ridden for several years due to injury - is to take on one of the world’s toughest cycle races to raise money for charity.

Dr Sarah Ruggins, head of the investment specialist team at wealth manager St James’s Place, is to take part in the cross-Europe trial to raise money for the St James’s Place Charitable Foundation.

She will set off on Sunday 21 July on what some have called one of the world’s toughest endurance cycle races: the Transcontinental Bicycle Race.

She is one of the few women to have been accepted to compete against 300 athletes from around the world.

She is attempting to be the fastest female cyclist and fastest pairs team to cross the European continent unassisted, in the race’s 10th anniversary event.

She will start out from Roubaix, France and then ride through 16 countries; covering approximately 4,400km (2,734 miles) of “gruelling terrain.” The ride will climb an elevation six times the height of Mount Everest with a finishing line in Istanbul, Turkey.

She will provide her own mechanical, medical and navigational support, SJP says.

Dr Ruggins aims to complete the race in 10 days. SJP describes it as “an extreme exercise in self-sufficiency, sleep deprivation, problem solving and strength.”

In her teenage years she was an Olympic hopeful, running her first Commonwealth Games qualifying time at 15 years old.

However, a serious injury required extensive surgery to both her feet and soon after she developed a disease in her nervous system which caused a near total-body paralysis, rendering her bed ridden for several years.

She said: “In those years my goals changed from running an Olympic qualifying time to surviving. But over time I gained confidence to try and flex my toes, feed myself independently and hold a pencil well enough to write my name.

“During this time there were numerous charities involved in my care, and I could not have recovered without them."

In addition to the physical challenges, the race will also test her mentally as she deals with sleep deprivation, sleeping on the side of the road en route when it's safe to do so.

She has been training 30 hours per week, in addition to planning her route logistics. She has also had to learn to build every component of her bike in case of mechanical failures.

Sarah continued: “What my rehabilitation taught me is that we are capable of enduring infinitely more than we think, and that compassion for yourself and others can be your competitive edge, both in sport and in life.

“I now use ultra-endurance training as a way to explore the emotional and physical limits of my body as it exists today while bringing awareness to impactful charities, such as the fantastic work being undertaken by the SJP Charitable Foundation."

• More information on the SJP Charitable Foundation is on her JustGiving page. The Foundation supports hundreds of charities every year.