AFTER eight years of dreaming, father and son duo Jon and Josh Sinclair are finally gearing up to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall.

The pair, who live in Washington, Tyne and Wear, are planning to set out on the 86-mile journey during May half term, starting in Wallsend and finishing up on the east coast of the country, in Bowness, Cumbria.

"We've discussed taking on the challenge since Josh was 10 years old," says Jon, 40, who was formerly in the military. "He loved studying the Romans at school."

Josh, who is also enlisting in the military later this year, was the one who selected NEAS as the charity to benefit from their challenge, after doing some research online.

The 17-year-old, who is autistic but has no formal diagnosis, found out about the work we do after researching available support in the North-east.

Jon, who also tutors a number of autistic college students, and Josh are planning to complete the walk over an estimated five days. They will be camping along the way and, impressively, will be carrying all of their equipment over the entire distance.

The duo have already begun training for the event and regularly go walking, with Jon saying they've been steadily increasing their distances and carrying weights in their pack, as well as training in the gym.

While Jon and Josh are tackling the challenge on their own, we also have an opportunity for people to sign up to do a sponsored Hadrian's Wall Trek as part of a group in June. You can find out more here.

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