BARRY Dock RNLI lifeboat crew member Ben Phillips has embarked on a medieval challenge to raise funds for the sea search and rescue service.

The 23-year-old Norman period re-enactment enthusiast of Clos-yr-Wylan, Barry Island, will run a mile a day in armour for 66 days in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The ‘Ben Sven’s 66 Armoured Miles to Hastings challenge’ came about after Mr Phillips heard that, as part of their training regimes, a medieval knight would run a mile a day in armour as fast as possible.

Mr Phillips, a National Assembly security officer and Navy reserves member, last year raised £860 for the RNLI by getting sponsored to have a Norman soldier-style haircut.

Fellow reenactor, Mark Nicholls, on Torquay, Devon, is also taking on the challenge.

Mr Phillips said: “We are obviously nowhere near as fit as a real medieval knight would have been, but we figured it would be good to test ourselves and try.

“We will have to each run a mile every day wearing our authentic armour, typical of a Norman knight at the Battle of Hastings.

“We will be wearing a padded cloth coat called a gambeson, with a full chainmail shirt weighing approximately two stone over the top.

“As we manage to progress from our current state of unfitness to being able to run a little better we will also aim to include our helmets, swords and shields in some of the runs too, taking the total weight we are carrying to around 3.5 stone.

“Whilst we might crazy enough to do this, we aren’t crazy enough to do it for nothing, so we are taking this opportunity to raise money for the RNLI.”

To donate visit justgiving/fundraising/rnli-armour-run