A SOLDIER from Rishton is set to embark on a gruelling feat in order to raise funds for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Corporal Joanne Cottrall, 26, will this weekend join an all-female team of four for Trailwalker 2002, a challenge started by the Gurkhas in Hong Kong as a training exercise.

The task is one of the toughest team events in the world and involves travelling 100km over the South Downs in 20 hours.

The event is organised by the Gurkhas and Oxfam to raise money to care for retired Gurkha soldiers and their families in Nepal. Up to 400 teams are expected to take part.

Joanne's team, led by Lieutenant Heidi Sparks, has pledged to raise more than £1,000.

The record for the journey from Petersfield, in Hampshire, to Brighton in Sussex , is by the Queen's Own Gurkha Logistics team, who completed the run in just under 10 hours.

Joanne, a former pupil of St Anthony's RC School and Our Lady and St John's High School in North Road, both Blackburn, joined the army when she was 17. She is currently based in Colchester with the Royal Logistics Corps Transport Regiment.

Her husband, Corporal Lee Cottrall, 27, will follow the team in a support vehicle.

Anyone who would like to sponsor Joanne and her team can call 01206 783432.