A bereaved father will lead a group of fundraisers on an 18-mile bed push this weekend.

Andrew Davies from Oswestry lost his 15-year-old son Charlie to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in May of last year.

Starting at 7am on Sunday, Mr Davies and three others will push a wheeled bed from the orthopaedic hospital in Gobowen to Wrexham Maelor hospital to support Muscular Dystrophy UK.

The team aim to raise £1,500 to help fund research into DMD – a muscle-wasting condition caused by the lack of a protein called dystropin, which usually affects only boys.

Mr Davies said: “My son Charlie left us last May 2015 after fighting DMD all his life, but that never put him down – he was always having a giggle and laugh.

“He enjoyed his life like every child and young man he grew to be should – and he had some amazing friends who really went all out for him.

“My younger son Bobby also suffers with DMD so we’re doing this for him and Charlie, so we raise as much as we can for a great cause. Charlie would have loved to have helped us complete the bed push. He would not have been pushing but he would have said: ‘I’m on the bed’.”

The bedpush challenge will see three of the team pushing one team member along for 15-minute intervals with one person astride the bed at all times.

The route on the day will see the group pass through towns and villages including Chirk, Ruabon and Johnstown with collection buckets.

A designated online Just Giving page has also been set up for donations to be collected.

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/Andrew-Davies64