FORMER colleagues of ex-footballer Len Johnrose are stepping out to help raise vital funds for motor neurone disease research.

The former Blackburn Rovers and Burnley midfielder's battle with the condition has captured the public’s imagination.

And staff and former colleagues at St Silas Primary, in Blackburn, where he later taught, are in training to lend their support to the cause.

No fewer than 10 people currently and formerly on the books of the St Silas Road school will take on the Yorkshire Dales Three Peaks on May 5.

The squad includes headteacher Michele Battersby, Laura Payne, Paul Ellis, Graeme Hadwin, Rehana Patel, Laura Smith, Andrew Burcher, Catherine Whittaker, Pat Knight and Shakira Kachwala.

Headteacher Michele Battersby said: "We thought that the footballing community had done so much for him that it was about time the education world also helped out."

After he retired from the game he spent more than five years at St Silas, taking both Key Stage One and Key Stage Two classes as well as becoming their maths lead.

And perhaps not surprisingly, he took charge of the school team, which won the schools league under his tutelage.

A school spokesman added: “We are doing this to raise funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association who fund research into future treatments of this incurable disease. We do not have a minimum, or maximum amount that we would like to raise but we will endeavour to raise as much as we can.”

Supporters can make pledges to their efforts by logging on to the their Just Giving page online, at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stsilas3peakschallenge

Their contribution is just the latest East Lancashire event for the Preston-born player’s campaigning work.

Last November old boys from two of his old sides, Burnley and Swansea, competed in a charity match for the Len Johnrose Trust, raising nearly £10,000.