IT'S seven years since Steve Scott got his MBE for Supporting socially excluded groups.

As a director of My Support Broker, the 4’ 6” resident of Southvale Crescent, Timperley, helps other disabled people by encouraging them to remain independent.

A member of South Manchester Speakers Club, Steve gives talks about his cycling trips around Europe on his specially adapted bike.

He, and his friends, have raised thousands of pounds for the Dwarf Sports Association and Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group.

But the main aim is to have fun.

Steve, 54, said: “I and my school friends from Hertfordshire decided that when we were 30 we would go white water rafting.

“When we were 40, we cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats.”

Big bike rides became annual events. In the last five years they have ridden fron London to Paris, Paris to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Vienna and Vienna to Belgrade.

They have just completed 430 miles from Belgrade to Thesolonika in six days.

They made one big mistake. “We turned right on to what we thought was a dual carriageway,” said Steve.

“We stopped a policeman to ask the way and he was shocked when he realised we’d been cycling on the motorway for 20 minutes!

“He slowed down the traffic so we could escape through a very dark tunnel.”

When Steve’s bike punctured, they called at a garage.

“They used a bit from my inner tube and vulcanised it like they did tractors.”

Serbia was still recovering from floods so the party had waded across a road up to their knees in water.

“Whose knees?” joked Steve.

On reaching land, he met a Serbian dwarf and the two are still in touch.

The group experienced many kindnesses.

One man waived their £1,800 hotel bill if they gave it to the leukaemia charity.

“The hardest thing is cycling out of an airport,” said Steve.

“In Frankfurt a man told us we were going the wrong way. He ended up guiding us for 30 miles.”

The only unkindness Steve comes across is in England, when people drive slowly to photograph him on their mobiles.

“They should get a life,” he said.