A PERSHORE soldier will be making things doubly difficult for himself when he takes part in the New York Marathon next month.

Adam Wilson, a Captain in 1st Regiment, The Royal Horse Artillery, will run the distance in full Army kit, which includes a 40lb rucksack.

He will have plenty of motivation, however, as he is running to raise money for Whizz-Kidz. The charity provides wheelchairs and tricycles to help disabled children be more mobile.

The New York event will not be the first marathon Captain Wilson, aged 29, has run in his Army kit and he hopes to record a time of around four hours, 40 minutes, despite the extra weight he will be carrying.

He ran the New York Marathon in 1999 and the London Marathon the year before that. He also took part in the Bataan Memorial Death Race in 2000.

He has been training for the upcoming run during a recent six-month tour of duty in Bosnia.

He said: "I have trained for this year's event and am really looking to the NY Marathon."

He already has more than £1,100 towards his personal sponsorship target of £1,500.

More than 200 runners have signed up to help Whizz-Kidz, hoping, between them, to generate at least £300,000 from the New York Marathon alone.

That would enable at least 100 children to become mobile.

The race attracts more than 32,000 runners from all over the world.