Great North Air Ambulance Service has helicopters based in the North East and Cumbria. In a straight line there is around 51 miles between these bases, a journey which takes around 15 minutes in a helicopter.

On Sunday 8th May a team of four runners will set off from Durham Tees Valley airport and run a slightly less direct and therefore slightly longer 62.5 miles (100k) with the aim of completing this in 15 hours.

This is going to be a tough route, essentially comprising of:

• 1 x slightly uphill road marathon
• 1 x very hilly mixed trail/road marathon
• Ten miles thrown in, just in case the first two marathons weren't hard enough

This is inspired by a great charity that is never put off doing something worthy just because its hard.

The runners are

• Clive James
• Lyndon Peasley
• Sean Boland
• Nat Snell

Each has experience of running and all have run at least one marathon, so we all know how big a challenge this is, and we are under no illusions, this is a challenge which will test all of us to the limit. If you're still reading and you don't want to or can't support this with a donation, if you're based near the route and can offer any support that would also be welcomed.