HUSBAND and wife Caroline and Nick Bark have taking in the Polar Circle Marathon in aid of The Simon Trust, which is raising money to house 10 severely autistic young adults in Surrey.

The 42.195km marathon, has been dubbed “the coolest marathon on earth”.

Before her departure Caroline said she was still getting to grips on why she decided to take on this challenge: “I now wonder what on earth I was thinking when we signed up. But we have always wanted to travel to the arctic, the scenery, the ice, glaciers, snow and tundra and harsh conditions are awe inspiring and so different to Farnham.

“We are very excited about being on the ice cap and in Greenland. We have run quite a few marathons before and it seemed ideal to combine our love of running with being in this extreme environment.”

Due to low temperatures of minus 20 degrees, the pair had the added pressure of heavier layers to keep them warm, and will have to get used to a completely new type of terrain than they are normally used to.

“We have trained much harder than we have ever done before, we have run four marathons as part of the training as well as lots and lots of cross training, and hours and hours of running off road round Farnham. We did try and find a butcher’s cold room to train in, but no luck I am afraid,” added Caroline.

Caroline and Nick have known Sally and Peter Lawrence, who founded The Simon Trust, for around 12 years. They have seen how the Lawrence’s have struggled over the years to ensure that their autistic son Simon, receives the most appropriate care and the worry his future has caused them.

“They have so much tenacity and have fought so hard to make sure that this amazing home for autistic adults is developed so that families in Surrey don’t have to travel huge distances to see their relatives, and so we wanted to support them and The Simon Trust,” Caroline concluded.

To support the pair visit their Virgin Money Giving page at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/icebarks. For more information on The Simon Trust see www.thesimontrust.org/