THREE men from Comet country enter the Brazilian jungle tomorrow (Thursday) on a mission to complete a gruelling 100 mile run in six days to raise money for a children s hospital. All three are from Letchworth GC and they will be running in sweltering hea

THREE men from Comet country enter the Brazilian jungle tomorrow (Thursday) on a mission to complete a gruelling 100 mile run in six days to raise money for a children's hospital.

All three are from Letchworth GC and they will be running in sweltering heat with temperatures up to 35C and in 90 per cent humidity meaning the risk of heat stroke is exceptionally high in the Jungle Marathon.

Not only will police officers Arron Worbey, 28, and Darren Clawson, 33, who are both part of the tactical team based at Stevenage, and Nick Trainell, 42, who lives on the Lordship estate in Letchworth GC, have to face the heat they will also have to watch their step for snakes, scorpions and other poisonous creepy crawlies in the jungle.

But at the end of the race they hope to have raised over �11,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital which treated Mr Clawson's two-year-old son Hadley after he was diagnosed with a severe and complex form of drug-resistant epilepsy.

The trio have been undergoing acclimatisation training at the University of Bedfordshire under the watchful eye of Paul Castle and Lex Mauger in a state-of-the-art environmental chamber which hopefully will reduce the risk of heat illness and maximise their performance.

Mr Worbey, who has been nominated for a Comet Community award for his bravery in disarming a person carrying a gun following street violence in Letchworth GC two years ago, said: "We will have to deal with the local wildlife which pose a serious threat to runners, including jaguars, snakes and scorpions, giant ticks and whatever is lurking in the rivers.

"Each night we will spend in hammocks near rivers as it is supposed to be the safest place at night.

"Due to the location, hospital treatment is several hours away and they evacuate runners by donkey and boat. So if something deadly such as the Bushmaster snake bites you, we have been told we are as good as dead. You can see why this is officially considered the toughest foot race in the world."

Mr Worbey added: "This is going to be the toughest race of our lives. We have spent a large amount of time training around 80kms a week and fundraising for this event.

"The entrance fees and kit costs have been around �2,000 each which has been paid out of our own pockets as we didn't want to take anything away from Great Ormond Street.

"We've put our hearts and souls into this event; we're absolutely exhausted with our schedule but know it's worth the sacrifice."

Picture shows left to right, Darren, Nick and Arron with lecturers Lex (far left) and Paul.