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My unique challenge will mark the 100^th anniversary of the first Battle of Ypres, one of the most strategically important series of battles in the First World War, and one which claimed the lives of over 270 000 men.

Exclusively organised on behalf of ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and supported by Ancestry.co.uk, I am representing the Suffolk Regiment one of the 220 regiments that existed at the outbreak of WW1 and I will be walking approximately 100kms in commemoration of this 100 year anniversary.

My challenge begins near Albert in Northern France and beginning in the Somme I will trek north through the symbolic poppy fields along the route, stopping at the many WWI memorial sites that I will see on the way.

Over 8.5 million people across the world died in the First World War, which is an incredible figure, and sometimes difficult to comprehend. Only by seeing the memorials will I be able to really grasp the sheer scope of this war, as the sites commemorate not only French, English and German soldiers, but also the many nations from the Commonwealth, Russia, the US and the rest of Europe who fought alongside each other.

I will pass through many famous battle sites such as Thiepval, Vimy, the German Cemetery at Neuiville Saint Vaast and Notre-Dame de Lorette, which is the largest French Memorial.

The challenge ends with a moving visit to Ypres in Belgium and the ceremony of the last-post at the Menin Gate on Saturday 18^th October 2014, exactly 100 years on from the start of the Battle of Ypres.

http://www.soldierscharity.org/events/event-item/ancestry.co.uk-frontline-walk