Friends take on 1,000-mile to run the length of Britain in aid of two good causes

Will Cahill, 26, from Horndean and James Grinter, 29, from Denmead, are doing it all in aid of raising money for two causes.

They will raise cash for their friend Damien Haughan, who was left paralysed from the neck down after a mountain biking accident in the Swiss Alps, and premature babies charity Ickle Pickles.

Last year the pair ran 100 miles from Buckingham Palace to The Spotted Cow Pub in London Road, but this run is far most extreme than anything they’ve ever done before.

Leaving on May 9 they hope their extreme challenge will take just 50 days.

They will be running 1,000 miles completely self-supported with no support team as they will be carrying all of the equipment they will need on their backs.

Will said: ‘We can’t wait. We’re really excited. It’s been a long term plan. We’ve been training and preparing for 18 months now.

‘Both myself and James have a real love for the outdoors and the country.

‘Our friendship was originally based on music, but we then realised we both share a passion for the outdoors.

‘One day we decided to go for a run. We watched some programmes which were a massive inspiration.’

‘We did the Yorkshire three peak challenge together which is 26 miles long. Then once we’ve done that and we really enjoyed it we wanted to see how far we could go. So it’s just got bigger since then really.’

Will and James, as well as training, have had to prepare themselves mentally for the task that lay ahead.

‘We had to get used to the terrain, elevation and running with stuff on our backs. We had to prepare both mentally and physical.

‘It’s going to be a huge mental battle and in the end I think it’s going to be our will power that gets us over the line.’

‘Damien thinks it’s amazing, what we are doing. He says we’re mad.’

To sponsor the guys on their long run you can do so by going to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/runningbritain2019 and runwillandjames.com