Porthcawl RNLI Helm Ross Purchase and his friend Daniel Bridge are to run the Great Welsh Marathon at Llanelli on 17 April.

Their aim is to complete the marathon in four hours and raise money for the RNLI charity.

Ross, 33, who like 35-year-old Daniel lives in Porthcawl, said: ‘I have been a volunteer lifeboat crew member at Porthcawl for 12 years and I thought this would be an excellent way for me to give something back to the RNLI.

‘As crew we train twice a week locally and occasionally are sent away on week long courses. All of this is to keep us as safe as possible when we are out on rescues but of course all training is a cost to the charity.

‘We both decided that we wanted to raise money for the RNLI so we have set up a Just Giving account and our joint aim is to raise in excess of £850 from this event.’

Both Ross and Daniel have been training for the past six months together and they can be seen regularly running in RNLI vests helping to promote their cause. One of the benefits of all the training so far is that they have found that they are able to eat very well yet still shed the weight.

Daniel, who is a local builder, said: ‘Ross and I first discussed this idea whilst dropping off our children at West Park Primary school in Nottage. Then what seemed a distant date, we now realise is approaching fast. Nevertheless we are both looking forward to running our first marathon and raising money too.’

To support both with a donation and help them in their aim to raise valuable money for the RNLI charity you can log onto Justgiving/ross-purchase or text Runa59 followed by £1,2,3,4,5,or 10 to 70070.