THE Southampton-based executive vice president of Carnival UK is setting out on more than just an afternoon stroll as he joins his son to walk 1,216 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End in aid of the Emma Maltby Memorial Fund.

David Noyes is taking two months unpaid leave from his position in operations at P&O Cruises and Cunard Line to take on the challenge.

Together with his son Robert, 19, they aim to raise £10,000 for the charity, which provides tutoring in St James’s University Hospital and the Leeds General Infirmary in Leeds for teenage cancer patients.

The route the father and son team are taking is a course through the most isolated, naturally beautiful landscapes in the country – past the foothills of Ben Nevis, within viewing distance of Loch Ness, in and out of Wales on the Offa’s Dyke path and through the famous brooding Bronte heaths of Wuthering Heights fame in Yorkshire.

At an average of just over 20 miles a day, with a few rest days on the way, the route will take them 61 days to complete.

They aim to arrive at Land’s End on August 19.