THREE men will be walking through Craven in September with the goal of raising £20,000 to help fund research into rare genetic diseases. 

Noel Hastings, Mike Keel, and Andy White, from the North West, are planning to walk the 268 mile Pennine Way, in 19 days - to raise money for research and development into curing Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2) and Schwannomatosis, two rare genetic disorders.

In 2019, Andy's daughter Rebecca was diagnosed with NF2, and in the same year, Noel's daughter Hayley was diagnosed with Schwannomatosis.

The trio, with a combined age of 185, will walk from Edale to Kirk Yetholm to raise they hope £20,000 for NF2 BioSolutions UK and Europe, a charity funding approximately 15 different therapy research projects globally to find a cure for NF2 and Schwannomatosis.