A QUARTET of walkers from Gwent will trek through Scotland later this month to raise funds for research into multiple sclerosis.

The self-styled Anthill Mob - Charles Thomas, 50, Steve Hitchman, 53, Tomos Hitchman, 12, and Reinhold Labisch, 52, from Abergavenny - will walk more than 170 miles from Inverness to Glasgow for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The group, also including their driver, Steve Watkins, aim to complete the walk in nine days, and so far have raised almost £4,500.

Their website - www.anthillmob.org.uk - explains that "walking is our hobby, long walks are our insanity" and they are clearly no strangers to the long haul, having walked Offa's Dyke (177 miles) in 2007 and Hadrian's Wall (84 miles) in 2008, raising respectively, £5,000 for the Pulmonary Hypertension UK and £2,000 for the Prostate Cancer Charity.

"Our inspiration this year came from Kath Williams, a lady with MS from the HSBC bank, who manages our fundraising account," said Mr Thomas.

"After that last walk she asked me when we were going to do a walk for the MS Society."

Mrs Williams, 37, of Abergavenny, has a form of MS, a disabling neurological conditions affecting around 85,000 people in the UK.

"The MS Society has been very supportive and it's great that people are prepared to raise money like this," she said.

For more on MS: www.mssociety.org.uk To sponsor the mob: www.justgiving.com/welshanthillmob