Kevin Wright, an adventurous Hilperton grandfather, is preparing to fulfil a childhood ambition by travelling to Antarctica and raising money for Help For Heroes at the same time.

The 58-year-old, who began his fundraising challenge at St Thomas’ Church on Remembrance Day, travels to Antarctica with his brother Gary on February 28 for three weeks.

The brothers will be reunited for the trip as Gary, 56, lives in Perth, Australia and they will meet up in Argentina before going to Antarctica.

During the expedition, Mr Wright, of Church Street, and his brother will attempt to kayak between two ice mountains bidding to raise £3,000 for the charity.

The brothers will have a will also camp on the ice and climb a mountain.

Mr Wright has already raised more than £1,000 with the support of his family, including his wife Judy, daughters Lisa and Kerry and three grandchildren Wilf, 10, Frank, seven, and Ned, four, who live in Freshford and who helped him sell Help For Heroes merchandise.

Mr Wright said: “It all started when I was about eight, after watching the movie Scott of the Antarctic starring Sir John Mills. It stayed with me for the rest of my life and it is something I have always wanted to do.

“Later in life I worked in mountain rescue while living in the Lake District and met Robert Swan, who was the first person to walk to both the North and South Poles, which inspired me again.

“In 2012 I went to see the Natural History Museum’s exhibition on Scott’s 100th anniversary of reaching the South Pole and decided that I had to visit Antarctica, which is when the planning and preparation started.

“We won’t know how hard the kayaking is going to be until we are there, as the conditions will be completely different to the canals we have been practising in. We are preparing ourselves for up to 20 miles, but we will have a boat supporting us just in case we capsize.”

The build-up to the expedition has not all been plain sailing, with Mr Wright’s preparation significantly derailed by two bicycle accidents within nine weeks at the end of 2013.

They resulted in five broken bones and required Mr Wright to undergo three operations, including a knee replacement and an operation to rebuild his shoulder.

Mr Wright said: “I was starting to think it was not meant to be as it was just one thing after another, but I have had 10 weeks to get myself back into shape and I’m just looking forward to it now.”

To donate, visit www.bmycharity.com/KevinWright