Runners in last year's London Marathon. Photo: Petr Brož CC-BY-SA-3.0

Six volunteer mountain rescuers will pound the streets of the capital in an effort to raise £10,000.

The six, from different English teams, will take part in April’s London Marathon to raise cash for mountain rescue’s umbrella body.

For three of the six it will be their first attempt at a marathon. Dan Case of Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team Plymouth, Dave Hadden of Kinder Mountain Rescue Team in the Peak District and Jon Jones of the Derby Mountain Rescue Team will tackle the 26-mile course as marathon virgins. Mr Jones, a mountain biker, has only been running for a year.

Joining them will be Mike Woodcock of Scarborough and Ryedale MRT in North Yorkshire, Pete Bradley from Calder Valley SRT in West Yorkshire and Alasdair Cowell, a regular fell runner and a member of Glossop MRT in the Peak District.

Their aim is to raise the cash for Mountain Rescue England and Wales.

Neil Woodhead, the team’s coordinator and a member of MREW’s executive committee, was keen to get an MREW team together for 2014.

“The London Marathon places came to us via our royal patron [the Duke of Cambridge] and the Princes’ Charities Forum,” he said, “and I’m pleased we’ve been able to find runners to fill all the places.

The six marathon runners

“We’ve now got six runners from six different mountain search and rescue teams.

“Some of them are very experienced but, for three of them, this will be their first time in the London Marathon.”

All six runners have regular day jobs, including an accountant, a student and a computer animator, and all of them already volunteer for mountain rescue.

Dave Hadden from New Mills in the Peak District said: “Finding the time to fit marathon training in is a challenge.

“Hopefully our regular trips up into the hills on rescues, searches and training exercises with the all the heavy equipment that we need in mountain rescue will help build up the stamina we need to reach the finish line.”

MREW said the target of £10,000 is a challenging one but Mr Woodhead said he is hoping that plenty of advance publicity and the usual amazing public support for volunteer mountain rescue will help in reaching the target.

He said: “We really appreciate the support, both in kind and financial, that we get from our local communities but I am hoping that the London Marathon effort will raise the profile elsewhere in the country.

“We know that there’s a lot of interest out there. This should raise our profile and also generate support from people who visit the hills of England and Wales from our towns and cities and who would like to show their appreciation in a small way.”

Donations to the team of six can be made on its Virgin Money Giving page.