THREE friends who are planning a 10,000-mile charity car rally in an 18-year-old Nissan Micra have set an ambitious fundraising target of £1 a mile.

James Nowell, Paul Thomas and Alex Ramsay, all from Kendal, say their aim is to raise £10,000 by completing the gruelling Mongol Rally this summer.

Most of the cash will be donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society with a donation also going to the international environmental charity Cool Earth.

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The trio, who bought their old banger for £320, will set off from Goodwood for the Siberian town of Ulaan-Ude on July 19.

James, 21, said: “I have never done anything like this before, none of us have, but we decided to just book it and take the plunge.

“My aunt has Multiple Sclerosis along with another relative of my team mate’s so we are hoping to raise as much money as possible because we want to do our part to try and find a cure.

“I’m really looking forward to driving through the deserts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia because the scenery looks amazing and the culture is meant to be very different. However, I’m not really looking forward to the long drives in Europe and the hours spent at borders, but it’ll be a great adventure.”

James's employer, Electricity North West, has donated £250 to the cause.

Operations director Martin Deehan said: “I know for a fact everyone at our Kendal depot will be closely following updates from James when he’s on his once-in-a-lifetime adventure," he said.

Meanwhile, the three friends have been busy preparing their Micra for the gruelling challenge.

Paul explained: "We managed to get hold of a roof rack from a Land Rover so we had to cut that down to size and we've also got some rally headlights.

"We have had no mechanical failures so far so fingers crossed."

Donate by visiting the website marcoyolo.co.uk or by visiting justgiving.com/marcoyolo

* The group is planning to do bag-packing at Asda over Easter and a raffle will be held in the Westmorland Shopping Centre on April 11/12 to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis Society UK.