YOUNG dad Will Rawle is donning his hiking boots to tackle a 30-mile hill-walking marathon that he hopes will raise £5,000 for the hospital ward that treated his newborn daughter.

The accountant from Stratton and ten of his friends are planning to walk 30 miles up hill and down dale in the Lake District in the space of 15 hours for the special care baby unit at Great Western Hospital next month were Arabella, now two, spent her first days.

He told the Advertiser: “My first child was born just over two years ago and for the first two weeks of her life she was in the children’s ward and for a short time in the special care baby unit.”

Born after a 27-hour labour she had a raised temperature and needed to be under close observation.

It was while she was there that Will, 34, realised that although he and wife Claire were scared and worried about their new baby, many children were much more seriously ill than she was.

As a result he was determined to do something to help the unit.

“They do rely on charity to provide anything from the simplest of things like bottles and breastfeeding pumps to more complex things like incubators,” he said.

Will, who now has a baby son George, decided on the walk because it was something he knew he could do.: “I can’t bake, I can’t cook and cake sales are best left to people that can do that.”

He said: “I’ve walked in the Lake District for years. It’s an area I know well and I’m familiar with things like mountain rescue. I’ve not had to use them but I’ve seen them in action.”

“It is a fair old effort. It’s likely to take us 15 hours to do it and it’s intended to be difficult,” he said, pointing out the distance was more than going up and down Ben Nevis twice.

“Some of the lads definitely aren’t hillwalkers,” he said they did play other sports including football and they have been training for their walking marathon. “I dragged a couple of them up there in February and we were met with absolutely freezing conditions.”

They had also done quite a bit of training along the Ridgeway and over the Marlborough Downs.

The group is a mix of friends – some of whom met when they were at antenatal classes.

Anyone who wants to sponsor them can visit justgiving.com/fundraising/willrawle