A Biggleswade teenager is travelling to Nepal for a week’s charity work before running a half marathon through the country’s hilly landscape.

Former Stratton Upper School student Jake Simmons, 18, will travel to South Asia in November, working alongside Impact Marathon – a social business designed to harness the power of running to support communities across the world.

Speaking to the Comet, Jake explained how he discovered Impact Marathon and their work.

“I was the the National Running Show in Birmingham when I saw the Impact Marathon stand,” he said.

“They explained more about the work they do and I decided I wanted to take part.

“I will be doing a week’s charity work helping the local community before running a half marathon at the end of the seven days.

“The project will be working to help towards three of the 17 sustainable development goals set in 2000 by the United Nations global goals scheme in order to eliminate poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease, to all be achieved by 2030.

“The Nepal project will work on quality education, gender equality and clean water and sanitation.

“I am aiming to raise enough to be able to send myself to Nepal, as well as raising as much as I can for the four Nepalese charities I am supporting.”

The teenager’s 13.1-mile run will take place in the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, located in the Kathmandu Valley,

A keen runner, Jake is expecting the hilly, high-altitude course – which includes a climbing total of 1,000m – to be a challenge.

“I run regularly and have run 10k races before,” he said.

“I started my training this week but I am used to running on flat land, so I will have to train for the hills and the high altitude.”

Jake – who ran his first half marathon and 10k race in the same week – has already raised more than £500 for the British Heart Foundation by running the Leicester Half Marathon last October.

Later this year he plans to run from across the Isle of Wight from west to east – which is a distance of about 80 miles.

Jake is hoping to raise £850 to travel to Nepal.

To donate to his fundraising, have a look at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jakerun-nepal.

To find out more about Impact Maraton and its work, see impactmarathon.com.