Steven Cook has roped in five of his friends to also tackle the gruelling endurance race and to help raise £6,000 for the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

His 90-year-old grandmother died in June, after 10 years of living with the degenerative disease. Steven says the care she received was exceptional and he wants to give the charity something back.

With the heavy labour at his family's Windle Hall Farm, and his rugby background, Steven is hoping to get under three hours 20 minutes when they race round the roads of Germany on September 28.

His five pals - a butcher, a police officer, a dentist, a travel company director, and the manager of an engineering company - are finding time in their busy schedules to also pound the streets and churn out the miles.

Steven said: "The care my nanna, Marjorie Bailey, received before she died was fantastic and it really helped us out as a family. It was a difficult time, but now I want to do something to say thank you to the charity that was so supportive.

"All of us are St Helens lads and we all live in the area apart from Rue - a dentist up in Dundee."

He has already managed three London marathons, each time raising thousands of pounds for St Vincent's, a blind charity in Liverpool.

The 34-year-old said: "I got involved with that charity because they had some places available at short notice. I just decided to keep on running for them and raising money.

"I love doing it because it gives me some kind of goal and makes the hard work worthwhile."

Steven is training several times a week, and covering at least 10 to 15 miles each session. To keep him going his girlfriend Becky follows him on her bike.

He said: "I just can't wait until we get in sight of the Brandenburg Gate and I will know I will have less than a kilometre left.

"There's going to be around 40,000 competitors and the crowd support is supposed to be as good as it is during the London marathon, I can't wait."