A PROBATION officer is preparing to brave the 14 Welsh mountain peaks in Snowdonia, and hopes to raise £1,000 for Nightsafe.

Graham Fletcher, 63, of Compston Avenue, Crawshawbooth, will take on the walking challenge over 3,000 feet in Snowdonia, with all the proceeds going to buy eight new beds for Nightsafe, a Blackburn organisation which helps the homeless. He will be joined by a friend, Peter Bartlett of Church Street, Crawshawbooth, and the pair will do the four-day walk from April 25 to 28, staying at youth hostels along the way.

They have been training since Christmas, by walking in the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales at weekends, and are being sponsored by Goodshaw Baptist Church and St Mary's CE Church in Rossendale, as well as family and friends. Graham, who is based at the probation service in Burnley, has taken part in many sponsored activities for various charities over the years. He celebrated his 50th birthday by paddling a canoe 50 miles from Burnley to Leeds to raise money for Rossendale Hospice.

He has also paddled all the lakes in the Lake District from top to bottom for the British Heart Foundation, and he has cycled from Goodshaw Baptist Church in Rossendale to York Minster for the Church Urban Fund.

His wife Maureen, 59, said: "Graham's really looking forward to it and he's talked about nothing else."

Paula Kaniuk, manager at Nightsafe, said: "I think it's wonderful that Graham is doing this. We rely on the support from local people to keep going as we are a community organisation."