A retired Northern couple, John and Nancy Eckersley set off from Dover on Friday in a bid to complete a 600-mile walk to Carlisle for charity.

Mr and Mrs Eckersley, from Yorkshire, have vowed to raise £5,000 for a Christian Aid literacy project in Afghanistan. This is their second walk for the charity in three years, as in August 2011, they both trecked from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in the highland of Scotland.

This followed their retirement, John from his Geography teaching position and Nancy as a vicar in Heslington, York.

As they enjoyed their previous walk so much, they’ve now opted to walk the opposite diagonal across England, which is south-east to north-west.

The Eckersleys are raising funds for Christian Aid’s partner, the Afghan Women’s Educational Centre (AWEC) who are embarking on a three year project to help more than 1,000 women and young people’s voices become heard.

This can be done through education, literacy training and participation in local and national decision making.

The European Union has pledged to support the project and will provide match-funding at a ratio of 3:1.

This means that if the couple make £5,000 for the charity then £20,000 will go towards the project.

The athletic couple started their walk from the statue of Captain Matthew Webb on Dover seafront, which is a distant relative of Nancy’s.

He was the first recorded person to swim the Channel without the use of artificial aids.

It was on August 25, 1875, that he swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours.

Michael Hinton from the Dover Christian Aid committee said: “We are delighted to support John and Nancy in their admirable project.

Our committee represents over twenty congregations in the Dover area, and we wanted to be there to see them off and wish them well.”