This May I will be taking on a walk along Hadrian's Wall. Starting in Corbridge, the route finishes in Carlisle and aims to cover 50 miles over 3 days. The challenge will take place over the May bank holiday weekend so as you are all enjoying your sunny pints at The Ship, think of me up at the wall.

Training has been rigorous. The weekends have been spent exploring The Surrey Hills, The Ridgeway and The Trossachs, and some of you may even have spotted the stylish pair of walking boots I've been wearing round the office to 'soften them up'. I am something of a history badger and will take a great amount of enjoyment out of my surroundings - but it will also be tough and I am the first to admit that I have never been a natural walker. To prove this (and give you all some amusement) I have included a couple of my shortest uber receipts below.

All this would be in vain without a worthwhile cause and the walk will be in aid of a fantastic charity - Firefly. They provide education and art resources to refugee camps in Turkey and foster multi-ethnic youth projects in Syria, Bosnia and Palestine. Syrian refugee children in Turkey are in very real and urgent need of the educational and psycho-social support that this initiative is providing. With their childhood harshly disrupted and traumatised by a brutal war, many refugee children have lost hope of improving their future through education, and disengaged from it as a result. Firefly provides an educational programme in the camp that purposely combines effective learning and intellectual skills training with entertaining recreational social activities to help refugee children reintegrate into formal education. Last year the charity provided support to over 300 refugee children.

Any financial support you can offer the charity, however small, will be massively appreciated. The expedition is entirely self-funded so every penny raised will go directly to Firefly.

Love to all,

George