Ex-Norwich footballer Grant Holt takes on 'epic' 100-mile walk

Grant Holt (l) and local businessman Richard Pearce, who will be joining him on the walk

Ex-professional footballer Grant Holt is starting a 100-mile (161km) walk to fundraise for the Big C Cancer Charity.

The former Norwich City striker has teamed up with a local recruitment firm and others for the journey, which will start on Monday in Cromer and finish in Norwich on Tuesday.

Holt said: "Walking a long distance is not just a stroll - it's a huge challenge that tests both mind and body."

He added: "It's going to be an epic."

He will be walking with four others.

Local businessmen Richard Pearce and Sean Garrihy will be taking on the challenge with Holt, together with Adam and Darren Miller from Norwich-based recruitment company ARC.

They will set off from No1 Cromer fish and chip shop, at about 05:00 BST, making their way to Norwich via King's Lynn on a route designed to make a large C-shape on a map.

The plan is to walk all day and night, and arrive at Big C's support centre in the grounds of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on Tuesday.

Grant Holt with the owner of the fish shop where the walk is planned to start

Holt said he undertook a similar challenge last year, walking 46 miles (74km) for East Anglia's Children's Hospices - and wanted to "keep the momentum going".

This latest one was definitely "going to be challenging", he told BBC Radio Norfolk ahead of the walk.

"We're going from Cromer to Hunstanton, Hunstanton to King's Lynn, King's Lynn to Dereham and then into the Big C."

Holt said the group had been training, and on their regular Saturday walks they were "joined by about 40 others - for mental health reasons and just to keep fit".

"But, you can't really prepare for this - it's probably going to take us about 38 hours - no sleep in between, just a couple of one-hour stops."

He added: "I just hope I'll be able to walk and do everything for the week coming up - otherwise I won't be able to get out of my seat and celebrate Norwich score against Ipswich on the Saturday."

Walking with him will be brothers Adam and Darren Miller, whose recruitment firm supports Big C.

"They were amazing to us last year when we lost our dad in June," Adam Miller said.

"[The charity] supported us right from the start, facilitating our sister's wedding in the hospital, which was incredible.

"They wheeled dad down the aisle next to my sister, and at the end he stood up - they provided us with so much support that we just wanted to give back."

Big C is one of East Anglia's largest cancer charities, having raised £40m since it was founded 40 years ago.

The charity's events and engagement manager, Tom Holmes, described the walk as "an incredible fundraising event".