TWO friends are running a marathon and not shaving for six months to honour a soldier who lost his legs in Afghanistan.

Golcar man Pete Turner and his friend Neil Stevenson are set to run the Brighton Marathon in April as “cavemen” – having not shaved since early October.

They took on the challenge in honour of Neil’s brother Gregg who stood on a mine while on foot patrol in Afghanistan and lost both his legs.

Gregg, who has been determined to remain active since the 2009 accident, asked Neil if he would run the marathon to help the charity which allowed him to ski.

Pete said: “Neil always maintained that he wanted to do something to show Gregg how brave he thinks he has been.

“Neil accepted the marathon challenged and I agreed to join in and help with the fundraising.

“We will be doing the marathon not only dressed as cavemen but as we are not shaving, we will have beards and long hair too.

“We also said if we reached £500 by October 31, we would do a chest wax. We reached that target and will be doing the wax at Beau Nail and Beauty in Lepton. The aim is to set up smaller challenges every month so that we keep the fundraising alive and will eventually be able to reach our milestone target.”

The itchy-faced twosome, who have been best friends since school, aim to raise £2,000 for Disabled Snowsport UK.

The charity aims to promote equality and opportunity for people with disabilities to take part in snowsports.

Pete said: “We are both a little bit more familiar with seeing each other in the pub rather than being athletes.

“Running is not something that either of us are greatly familiar with which makes the prospect of a marathon all the more daunting. We are up to six miles at the moment, and as Neil lives in Colne, Lancashire, we train separately.

“We get together once a week for a run and to discuss our progress.

“We aim to increase our running by two miles every week.

“I believe we are supposed to stop at 22 miles a couple of weeks before the big day, so we can be prepared.”

Gregg, who now also lives in Colne, Lancashire, is very active and has shown friends and family that his injuries will not slow him down.

He has just got engaged and finished decorating his home.

He is also really enjoying playing golf having recently become patron of the UK Golfing charity, the On Course Foundation, who help injured service men and women get in to golf.

For more information about the challenge visit www.cavemanmarathon.co.uk or to find out about their chosen charity visit http://www.disabilitysnowsport.org.uk/