Portsmouth cousins to walk 200,000 steps in their kitchen dressed as Mario and Luigi for NHS fundraiser

James and Chris New, from North End, will be taking 100,000 steps each on Saturday, May 16, raising money for NHS Charities Together.

Live-streaming their efforts on Twitch, the duo are looking to raise £1,000 for the charity.

They will be staging their show as a comedy act, walking through different countries in the kitchen with the help of props.

James, 36, said: ‘Chris and I are living together and came up with the idea of walking 100,000 steps each for charity.

‘The whole thing has snowballed from there, and become much crazier too.

‘We're really looking forward to putting on a show for everyone.’

The cousins will be dressing up as video game characters Mario and Luigi for the fundraiser.

During their walk around the kitchen, which they say is ‘decently sized’ they will be pretending to walk through 24 different countries, keeping their audience entertained with slapstick comedy throughout.

‘We’ll be starting in the UK, but that's as much as we’re going to give away for now,’ James said.

‘The distance we’re walking is the equivalent of 55 miles, so we've given ourselves 24 hours to do it.

‘We’ve planned a bit of a comedy sketch to go with it – that’ll be a lot of slapstick and very family-friendly, so anyone can tune in and have a laugh with us.'

James and Chris have done some preparation for their challenge next weekend – but know they will be struggling at the end.

Chris took part in last year’s Great South Run in Southsea, and James is a keen cyclist, often taking on 100km rides.

‘The training has been quite full-on, but it’s nice to do something that raises people’s spirits and have a bit of fun ourselves.

‘At the end of the day it’s all for a worthy cause, so we hope people watch on and enjoy it.’

To donate to James and Chris’ fundraiser, go to justgiving.com/fundraising/nhsstepchallenge.

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