Teacher preparing for great run

A TRAINEE teacher from Ipswich is taking part in a record-breaking attempt to walk the length of the Great Wall of China.Andrea Robinson, 26, is already training for her 137km stretch of the walk which she aims to complete later this summer for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

A TRAINEE teacher from Ipswich is taking part in a record-breaking attempt to walk the length of the Great Wall of China.

Andrea Robinson, 26, is already training for her 137km stretch of the walk which she aims to complete later this summer for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Some of the 22 groups taking part, all women, plan to walk the whole wall, covering a distance of 4,000kms in six and a half months. It will be the first ever time that an all-female team has walked the whole length.

Andrea, of Nacton Road, Ipswich, who is training to become an English teacher at Bath Spa University College, will be joined by celebrities including gardening guru Charlie Dimmock.

Andrea has been organising craft stalls and a balloon race to raise £1,000 sponsorship, which will go towards plans for the UK's first dedicated breast cancer research centre.

Andrea, who plans to run the Great West Run half marathon from Exeter on May 4, is also hoping to build a "great wall of support" with every brick sponsored by supporters in Ipswich.

She is asking for sponsors for the Great Wall of China walk to contact her on (01473) 729129.