Swapping Colchester for The Sahara - Meet the man taking on gruelling 250km challenge for charity

• Watch a video report from Hannah Pettifer

A man from Colchester is taking on the mammoth challenge to run 250km in six days across the Sahara desert to raise money for charity.

Sergeant Major Mick Hill will be taking part in Marathon des Sable where he will be running seven marathons in six days -running two marathons on day four.

The ultra-endurance event will take Sergeant Major Hill across the sand dunes and rocky mountains of the Sahara

Sergeant Major Hill said: "I think anytime you do a multi-day event it comes down to being on your feet a long time every day and then trying to recover. It's going to be tough"

Mick's recent training has not been ideal. He has just returned from a three-week exercise with his regiment in the Scottish borders where snow and strong winds prevented him from running.

He has set up a makeshift heat chamber in his garage to acclimatise his body to the extreme heat he'll be facing in the desert.

"Heat acclimatisation is probably going to be one of the most important things for me, being able to run across the Sahara, carrying all my kit, with the limited water, heat training is what's going to be the success to it I think, but it's a necessary evil and not pleasant," Sergeant Major said.

Mr Hill, from the 7th parachute regiment, is running the race for the Airbourne Gunner Trust, which is a charity he set up to help both serving and veteran soldiers of the regiment.

The charity, which was set up last year, has raised £15,000 mainly through running events and is hoping to raise £5,000 more with this latest challenge.

Sergeant Major Hill said "When you're doing it for charity and it's very personal to you and you care a lot about, and you're getting all this support from all these places that's what keeps you going.

"You get that little moment when you're in the pain cave, it's a dark day but you think about why you're there and the people who need help and you just carry on."

Sergeant Major Hill will be leaving to go to Morocco at the end of the month and hopes to hit his fundraising target by then.