Completing the London and the Berlin Marathon in 2007 I searched for a new challenge to keep myself busy in 2008. The difficulties of trying to get a place in the London Marathon forced me to apply for a marathon with a first come first served policy and so it was off to Paris in April 2008. Due to the Marathon distance now being considered easy I decided to add the Yorkshire 3 peaks onto the challenge. The aim was to complete both events in a one week period raising money for the Forces Children’s trust.

After a long day being dragged around the shops by my wife and kids whilst on Christmas leave I settled down to watch Noel Edmonds Christmas Presents show. All the way through the programme I noticed one good cause after another receiving well deserved surprises and gifts, the programme was close to the end and came to its last 10 minutes, it's then I saw ( to me ) the most well deserved cause of all - The Forces Children's Trust. After seeing the great job the charity does and being a serving soldier in the British Army and also having lost friends on operational duty who had kids and seeing the heartache and pain the loss of a father causes I felt I had no choice than to try and help this cause as much as I could, so I sat down and thought of a plan to put to my troop when they returned from leave to raise money.

• On the 29th of July 2008, Six Paramotor Pilots start an epic flight for there chosen charities, ‘The Forces Children's Trust' & ‘The Regional Air Ambulances'. They are flying from Lands End to John O'Groats. They will cross 20 counties, over 700 miles and expect this flight to take 8 days of intense flying with most nights spent in tents at paramotorclub.org affiliate clubs along the route. They will have to navigate around major airways such as Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Birmingham, and East Midlands (not to mention the military Fighter Jet dog fighting in Scotland!)