A RETIRED couple from Alveston are planning to put their best feet forward to help support two good causes.

Jos and Jenny Gregson, both known for their involvement in Thornbury Art Club and Thornbury Choral Society, will be hanging up their paint brushes and manuscript for six weeks to walk 700 miles across country.

Next month the couple plan to walk from Lowestoft on the Suffolk Coast to Lands End in Cornwall.

"We are very keen walkers both here and overseas," said Mr Gregson, 69.

The pair have previously walked the Inca Trail, the Tarkine coast in Tasmania and from Cape Wrath in Scotland to Dungeness in Kent.

However, the walk next month will have a special purpose and that is to help raise money for two charities close to the Gregson's hearts.

Mr Gregson has chosen to support the Parkinson's Disease Society and Mrs Gregson is raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mr Gregson said: "I lost both my father and a very close friend to the disease and I have other relatives who suffer from it."

The couple hopes to raise £5,000 for each charity and so far the couple are level pegging with their fundraising efforts and have each achieved £2,000.

The couple will set off on May 17 and the 700 mile route will allow them to take in all the sights of the south of England taking them along the Angles Way, Icknield Way, Ridgeway, Wessex Ridgeway and the South West Coast Path. "We are very much looking forward to the walk because while you are doing these walks it makes you realise that people are lovely, there is nothing like the kindness of strangers. It also allows you to appreciate the English countryside most of which is still absolutely beautiful," said Mrs Gregson, 70.

To show your support visit, www.justgiving.com/jennygregson or www.justgiving.com/josgregson