A SERGEANT major from Chipping Sodbury is taking on his first marathon to raise funds for a cancer charity.


Squadron Sergeant Major Neil Butcher, 42, originally from Chipping Sodbury, lost his Dad to bowel cancer in March 2013, just a month before he was deployed to Afghanistan for six months.


His mum was also diagnosed in January of the same year but is now in remission.


He has decided to take part in the Virgin Money London Marathon on April 26 to raise as much money as he can for the charity Beating Bowel Cancer and has raised £4,000 so far with the help of colleagues and friends at 29 Regiment, South Cerney, with support from his wife Sophie and their three year-old son Charlie.


Mr Butcher said: “As you can imagine this fantastic charity Beating Bowel Cancer is extremely close to my heart.


“Training is going well. I put in lots of hours early on because we are expecting another baby, who is due at the end of March and I imagine there’ll be late nights when they arrive.


“I’ve enjoyed the fundraising. We’ve had a charity car wash on camp and raised £1,648 by putting together a hamper full of nice port, gin and biscuits and chutney. We raffled it at a quiz night.”


Beating Bowel Cancer is the support and campaigning charity for everyone affected by bowel cancer which provides practical and emotional help and campaigns to raise public awareness of the disease.


Graham Kelly, director of fundraising at Beating Bowel Cancer, said: “We’re very grateful for Neil’s support and fundraising efforts, which will help the charity continue to help more patients.

"The marathon is a huge commitment to undertake and we wish Neil the best of luck for the challenge and we’ll be cheering him on from the side-lines.”