Matty's Extreme Ride to Nannas sees nine-year-old ride bicycle from Melbourne to Warrnambool

Along with his father, Michael, who is originally from Warrnambool, Matthew left his home in Yarraville in Melbourne on Thursday, arriving in Warrnambool on Tuesday, to raise money for Royal Children's Hospital's Good Friday Appeal. He raised more than $9200.

Matthew said he knew little about the appeal before doing the ride.

"We're raising money so we can help the hospital and doctors to get more machines and people working there," he said.

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The father and son duo rode between 38 to 55 kilometres per day, totalling 284km.

They made pitstops in Little River, Mount Moriac, Colac, Simpson and Brucknell Park Scout Camp.

They were accompanied by Matthew's mother, Lia, and sister, Helena, 6, driving in a utility and meeting them along the way.

Matthew chose Warrnambool as the final destination because he hadn't seen his grandmother, Maureen Crichton, for three years.

Michael said, at first, he thought Matthew wanted to ride to his other grandmother's house 30km from their home.

"A couple of times we'd drive down to Warrnambool and I'd point out to him and say 'can you imagine riding this on the bike'," he said.

"The idea never went away and he started talking about it more and telling people."

Michael said Matthew didn't complain once during the ride.

He said Easter was the best time to do the ride.

"We couldn't think of a better cause than the Good Friday Appeal," he said.

"There's other children his age in there."

He said training involved riding from their home to Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the football.

"I could tell that he had it in him even though he hadn't done that distance before," Michael said.

"It was a bit of an unknown, but we ventured off on the first day and he had an ability to bounce back quicker than I could."

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