A DITCHINGHAM man will be leading a team of friends on a fundraising trek for Help for Heroes along Hadrian's Wall.Jason Kercher will be making the five-day hike with his five friends - and they will be carrying all their kit along with them.

A DITCHINGHAM man will be leading a team of friends on a fundraising trek for Help for Heroes along Hadrian's Wall.

Jason Kercher will be making the five-day hike with his five friends - and they will be carrying all their kit along with them.

The friends will be walking a total of 84 miles with bags weighing more than two stone each, full of camping gear, food, water and clothing.

They have already raised more than �900 for Help for Heroes, and are hoping they can top �1,000 in sponsorship before they begin their walk on June 5.

Mr Kercher will be walking with his friends Tim Godden, Jay Hendy, Alec Hunter, Roger Fenton and Wayne Holland, none of whom have done a long trek like this before.

Mr Kercher, who lives on Clark Road, said: “None of us are particularly fit, which is why this is going to be a real challenge.

“We have been walking together and carrying really heavy rucksacks everywhere we go since we decided to do it.

“I have been working up to 17-mile walks since about December. I'm at the point now where I can ask someone to drop me in Norwich and I can walk home to Ditchingham with a really heavy bag.”

The 34-year-old added: “I have a few friends who are serving in the military, including one who came back from Afghanistan in November. He lost a friend in his unit.

“I was reading a newspaper feature and there was an interview with a man about my age who had lost a leg, which was bad enough.

“Then I turned the page and there was a 19-year-old lad who had lost all of one leg, most of the other one, and had massive injuries to his arms too.

“I admit it made me cry to think about the sort of life he will have now, and how brave it is to put yourself in that situation.

“We need to help these people who lay down their lives for us and so often come back injured or not at all, and this is a personal challenge for me and a way to say thank you. For two of us it's even more personal. One is a serving Royal Anglian and the other was a second lieutenant in the Territorial Army. They both feel that this is a way to give something back.”

For more information and to sponsor Jason and his friends, visit www.justgiving.com/ex-hadrians-wall. You can also pick up a sponsorship form from Simpsons Jewellers on White Lion Street, Norwich, where Mr Kercher works.