GRANDAD Neil Pascoe will not be sitting by the fire in his slippers when seniors all over the UK come into focus for this weekend’s National Grandparents’ Day.

In fact the 61-year-old from Hereford will be striving for his personal best in a Spanish Triathlon on Sunday, a kind of busman’s holiday for a retired man who spends his three-hour shifts delivering takeaways around the city on his bike.

Generally speaking, Neil is three times the age of Deliveroo’s army of young men and women who pedal across the city with restaurant food sealed in hefty backpacks for their eager customers.

Cycling up to 35 miles in a shift is a piece of cake for Neil, grandfather of two, who spent an energetic 24-year career as an RAF physical training instructor. After moving to Hereford, he worked as a carer for 14 years and after retirement he decided to sign up to Deliveroo.

“My son was working for Deliveroo in Dubai and I thought rather than watching TV in the evenings I could get out on my bike,” he says. “It’s perfect for me, it’s very flexible.”

Neil has a choice of racing bikes and mountain bikes, so he’s only too happy to get his teeth into a part-time job that keeps the local population supplied with dishes from favourite restaurants.

“There’s quite a big demand for takeaway food,” he explains. “The backpacks can be quite heavy at times.”

Covering a two-mile radius from the centre of Hereford with his fellow cyclists, Neil admits that he knows the city “pretty well” now.

Being a grandad is “wonderful”, he says, and his 13-year-old and 10-year-old grandchildren have benefited from his own passion for football, circuit training and running.

But when the nation doffs a cap to grandparents everywhere on Sunday, Neil will be notching up another triathlon, this time in Barcelona. He’s modest about his level of fitness. Two years ago he competed in the gruelling Ironman Wales event. How did he fare: “Well, I finished!” he laughs.