A father-of-five will scale the heights this weekend when he takes on the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for charity. 

Robert Winterton, 47, of Seaton Road, Harringworth, has been walking five or six miles a day in the roads near his home and cycling a further six around Rutland Water in preparation for the challenge. 

The son of Cheshire MPs Sir Nicholas and Lady Ann Winterton is joining one of five teams this weekend to walk up Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell in Cumbria and Snowdon in Wales, all in less than 24 hours. 

His chosen charity is Cry, which works to raise awareness of sudden death syndrome and campaigns for pro-active screening of young people. 

Robert said: "We have chosen to raise money and awareness of Cry because we are friends of a family who suffered a double tragedy in the past decade.  Howard English died suddenly just over 10 years ago, aged 32 and his eldest son, Sebastian died in 2004 aged 15. 

"The two deaths may have been prevented if three had been greater awareness of their medical condition." 

Robert is determined to complete his challenge and has also been eating carbohydrates and getting plenty of sleep ahead of the weekend.  The team is expected to spend 11 hours on the road moving from one site to another and will climb Scafell in the dark. 

"I'm getting a little bit of trepidation as I get closer to the event," he said, adding: "The children (aged eight to 18) are sceptical I'm going to complete it but I'm do8ing it with good friends and we will get each other through." 

Robert has already raised £1,500 for CRY and is hoping this will increase to £2,000 by the time he finishes the challenge. 

Anyone who would like to sponsor him and support the work of CRY can visit www.justgiving.com/lufbra3pks