Just a quick update to announce we've passed through the £500 mark.

Also it's probably a good idea to just recap what this blog is all about...

We've entered the Oxfam Trailwalker Event pledging to raise £4,000 for two charities: Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. The event is a mass-hike for teams of four from Queen Elizabeth Country Park (QECP), near Petersfield in Hampshire to Brighton Race Course in Sussex, that's a distance of 100km or 60 miles.

We (two teams of four Sun staff each) will be leaving QECP at 10AM on 14th July following the South Downs Way hopefully reaching Brighton Race Course within the 30 hour timelimit; that gives us until 4PM on 15th July.

You might be wondering who the Gurkhas are and why are they related to the event? Gurkha are the people from the State of Nepal and are notable for their history of bravery and strength serving in both the British and Indian Armies.

The Gurkha Welfare Trust is a British charity providing aid to about 10,000 Gurkha ex-servicemen and their dependants in their homeland of Nepal, who are not eligible to a military pension.

The Trailwalker event originated in Hong Kong, where it was a military drill for Gurkha soldiers up until 1986 when it was opened to the public as a fund raising event co-organised by Oxfam Hong Kong. Since then Trailwalker events have been established in UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. With Hong Kong handed back to China in 1999, the British Army Gurkhas left the territory. Since then the Queens Gurkha Signals Regiment have jointly run Trailwalker UK with Oxfam.

If you'd like to help us reach our £4,000 target please click top right on: