A GROUP of intrepid explorers is planning a trip to Scotland to scale Ben Nevis for charity.

Thirty-year-old Gary Turland has been trying to organise the expedition since returning to work two years ago, having had time off for health reasons, and has so far had a lot of interest from keen adventurers.

“It has always been my goal to climb Ben Nevis and I thought it would be great if I could set it up and get people to raise a bit of money for local charities,” said Gary.

There currently have around 30 people signed up for the climb and organisers are hoping to accommodate as many willing participants as they possibly can.

Gary, who works as a senior fitness officer at Grange Leisure, is planning the climb for March next year and is seeking as much financial backing as he can get, with anything left over going to two local charities – mental health charity Swindon Mind and children’s cancer charity CALM.

The plan is to leave Grange Leisure, Stratton St. Margaret, at 10pm on Friday March 31 and travel by coach to Scotland. From there, they will set out to scale the 1,300 metre mountain before heading back to the hotel to celebrate and leaving for home the day after.

Gary, who lives in Coleview, said: “It’s probably much too soon to organise anything for this year and as winter will bring shorter hours of daylight we thought it was better to leave it until next year.”

The trip is expected to cost in the region of £5,000, with the coach alone coming to £3,300.

Gary said: “The Stratton St. Margaret Parish Council kindly gave us £1,000 to put towards the costs, which will really help.

“It will enable more people to come along and will mean we’ll be able to give more money to the charities, so we’re really grateful for their support.”

“It’s a massive task organising it all, especially with being busy in the gym at the moment. But there are lots of people who are keen to help.”

Joe Tray, chairman of the Stratton St. Margaret Parish Council, said: “We are always keen to support local charities and what Gary and the team are organising is wonderful.

“They have been wanting to do this for a while now and we fully support them. It’s a win-win for the parish because it brings people together and raises money for local charities.

“We’ve just had our Stratton Festival and Stratton Stroll, which were both hugely successful, and it’s great to see all the different things people do to fundraise.

“We wish them all the best of luck, we’re fully behind them.”

Gary, who’s marrying his finance Louise in August, added: “Even though I’m going to be busy I’m not going to shy away from the challenge of organising something like this.”