ALMOST 18 months' of training are about to be put to the test as disabled man Glen Shaw sets off on a kayaking trip in the Antarctic - all by himself. The 32-year-old insurance company manager sets off on Saturday for the southern tip of South America at the start of what promises to be an epic trip around one of the world's most forbidding places.

Mr Shaw, who until March this year lived in Weavering Street, Maidstone, is to spend up to 10 days camping and kayaking in the Antarctic. His contact with the outside world will be via a radio connection with a nearby ship providing air deliveries of food and other provisions. To help him on his way, Jessops, a Maidstone photography shop, have given him £160-worth of film to ensure he never forgets his journey of a lifetime.

Mr Shaw, who has Brittle Bones' Disease and uses a wheelchair, will leave South America on a ship bound for the Antarctic where his feat of endurance will begin. He aims to conquer his relative immobility by kayaking along a peninsula protected from the elements by a range of hills and mountains. The Southern Hemisphere will work to his advantage.

Mr Shaw, who lived in Maidstone for 15 years before moving to London, said: "I have done everything I can to prepare and plan. I have to admit to a degree of apprehension but also a degree of excitement." He draws comfort from many similar challenges such as a trip to the base camp of Everest in 1997 and testing kayaks for disabled people in the Middle East.

Mr Shaw stressed the trip, which runs into many thousands of pounds, would have been impossible without donations from charities and businesses.