HE could have organised a jumble sale, done a sponsored walk or even jumped out of an aeroplane. But that would have been too tame for Steve Slawson.

Instead he's decided to raise money for charity the hard way - by running the equivalent of six marathons across the Sahara Desert in temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Perhaps the multiple-marathon option will not prove quite as popular as the others, but for the man from Sidbury, Worcester, the appeal of the "toughest footrace on Earth" has been growing for years.

Ever since a university friend ran the 150-mile course across sand dunes and rocks, Steve has been determined to put himself to the ultimate test.

And tests do not come more ultimate than the Marathon of the Sand, which sees competitors race across the world's largest desert for six days, carrying around 12kg on their backs.

"My wife and all her family think I'm crazy," admitted 27-year-old Steve, who manages Belvoir Lettings, in Sidbury, Worcester.

"But it's something I've been wanting to do for years. I was getting to the point where, if I didn't put in for it soon, I'd never do it."

The gruelling race, run in April or May each year, is expected to attract around 600 competitors from around the world in 2005.

Logic would suggest that all participants are finely-honed athletes, ready for what is generally accepted as one of the toughest endurance races around.

The reality is that entrants of all ages - in the past everything from 16 to 78 - and experience are driven for a variety of reasons to tackle nature's most unique and extreme course.

"I have a general level of fitness from the gym and swimming, and I have run one marathon, in Madrid, and a few half marathons before," he said.

"But I'm by no means a big runner or fitness fanatic. It's a case of getting into a steady, plodding rhythm - a bit of a groove really.

"The mental side is very difficult to prepare for, but I will have my music with me. Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin should keep me awake and take my mind of the distance. It's just a case of one step after another."

Steve will fly from London Gatwick to Morocco, on Thursday, April 7, and the participants will then be taken by bus to a drop off point in the Sahara Desert.

They will then be picked up by trucks and taken to an undisclosed starting point, where they learn the exact route and receive maps of the course.

The terrain will change little during the course, with no respite from the draining sand and unforgiving rocks, but the distances covered will vary between 17 and 47 miles in a day.

While the landscape and extreme temperatures - between 49C in the heat of the day and minus four at night - will be a new experience for him, it is also part of the appeal.

"I guess I will have plenty of time to take in the view and surroundings," he joked.

"But seriously, I have never been to that part of the world and that's another reason to do the race.

"It's an experience I am unlikely to repeat and a place I'm unlikely to return to so I will try and enjoy it."

As well as the scenery, challenge and desire to complete a goal that has been gnawing away at him for years, Steve has another motive to drive himself through the pain barrier of blisters, heat stroke and exhaustion.

"I am aiming to raise £5,000 in donations to St Richard's Hospice, to help them towards building a new residential hospice," he said.

"I became more aware of St Richard's when they launched their appeal. Cancer has affected quite a few people in my life and, considering it is just up the road from me, I wanted to support them."

The charity, which cares for people with life-threatening illnesses, launched an appeal in July to raise £5.25m for the new hospice.

The new centre, which will be built in Wildwood Way, Spetchley, Worcester, will house all of the services currently based at Rose Hill, off London Road, as well as a new bedded unit - the first of its kind in South Worcestershire.

"There is currently a huge shortage of palliative care beds in Worcestershire and this hospice will make a huge difference to local patients and their families," he said.

A parachute jump while at university in Leicester was the most outlandish Steve's fund-raising fancies have been to date, but all that is set to change when he sets foot on the baking sand of the Sahara in April.

And it might not end there.

"I have been warned that when you start these kind of things you get the bug," he joked.

"I haven't planned anything for afterwards but you never know what might be next."

Anyone able to sponsor the trek can do so at steveslawson.saharamarathon.co.uk/ or by e-mailing Steve at steve.slawson@ gmail.com