A TEAM of colleagues from a North Yorkshire engineering centre are preparing for an epic trek across Wales in memory of Thomas Cammack.

Four-year-old Thomas died in April following a year-long battle with neuroblastoma, despite a campaign to raise money to send him to America for further treatment.

Luke Varley and his colleagues from SSE Engineering Centre, at Ferrybridge, will on Thursday take on the Welsh 3000s challenge to raise money for the appeal set up in Thomas’s name.

The event was initially organised to try to raise funds towards Thomas’ treatment, but when he died his parents Richard Cammack and Toni Wood decided to continue raising awareness of neuroblastoma and money for families in similar situations.

Luke, who used to work with Richard at RWE, said: “We obviously wanted to continue the support by completing the challenge.

“The challenge itself was picked due to its difficulty.

“The overall opinion of the team was, if we were going to ask people for money, it has to be for a challenge that is difficult enough to warrant the support, and not just because Thomas’s story is close to people’s heart strings.”

The Welsh 3000s is a walk over 16 peaks in Wales within a 24-hour period, without use of any transportation.

The total route in all is more than 30 miles, with 14,000 feet of ascent over challenging terrain.

It has been described as one of Britain’s toughest 24-hour challenge walks.

Luke said: “It makes the Three Peaks look like a mere training exercise. So we thought, foolishly, that this was the one for us.”

To donate to the fund, which currently stands at almost £10,000, go to bmycharity.com/Welsh3000ECTeam and to follow their progress on Thursday, go to Twitter and search for ECWelsh3000s.