A THRUXTON couple have walked 100km in three days across First World War battlefields to raise funds for a charity.

Susan and Martin King have taken on the ABF (Army Benevolent Fund) – The Soldiers’ Charity Frontline Walk: a 100km trek along the frontlines of the First World War battlefield ending at Ypres at the Menin Gate.

The walk began on Thursday, 12 October and ended on Saturday, 14 October with the group off 55 walkers arriving at Ypres to be presented with medals.

So far, the couple has raised more than £2,750 for the cause.

Susan says: “It was a truly memorable experience. We had an excellent historian with us who brought the battlefields and cemeteries to life. There were 55 walkers, each with their own reason for being there, and the miles rolled by easily as we chatted to each other and learnt our fellow walkers’ life stories.

"The walk challenged everyone physically but the stories we were told and seeing the terrain on foot made the journey even more poignant and meaningful.

"Each day’s walk started at dawn to give us small inkling of how the World War One soldiers themselves might have felt there 99 years ago. Walking through the Menin Gate in Ypres at the end surrounded by our fellow walkers with whom we had made such good friends was truly memorable.

"We hadn’t realised that we would be clapped and cheered on our way and many of us shed tears of relief to have reached the end but also of sadness at the enormous loss of life; a generation of men who gave their lives so that we might live. One of the gravestones visited had the inscription: ‘Too good in life to be forgotten in death’ and we felt we did a very small bit to honour their sacrifice.”

Susan and Martin’s justgiving page is still open for donations to the ABF at justgiving.com/fundraising/susan-king12.