AROUND £2,500 looks set to be raised by Sellafield workers following a six-hour walk through the Lake District.

Employees from Cavendish Nuclear walked a route between the three peaks of Skiddaw, Scafell Pike and Helvellyn.

They were raising money in aid of The Sick Children's Trust which has helped Egremont couple, Joanne Long and Mark Harris.

Joanne stayed at the Trust's Crawford House for six months while helping to care for the couple's son, Jake, born at 26 weeks, who was being treated at Newcastle's RVI.

The pair returned home to celebrate Jake's first birthday last week.

Joanne said: "It is lovely to be able to celebrate first Jake's birthday in our own home. It has been so hard being away from my fiance, Mark, my friends and family but they have all been so supportive.''

The couple's home is filled with specialist equipment, both upstairs and down, to care for Jake including a ventilator, a suction machine, a Sats monitor, a humidifier oxygen concentrator and oxygen bottles, a nebuliser to administer medicine, a feeding machine and an emergency trachostomy box.

Joanne said: "It can take us two hours to get ready to leave the house for a walk, and I can be sweating after putting all his equipment in the pram. However, it is just so good to be able to do normal things.

Also taking part in the walk were Mark, who works at Cavendish Nuclear, and Joanne's mum, Kath Long.

Sam Calvin, 24, organiser, said it was an opportunity to help team-building as well as raise cash.

He said: "The group was of mixed ages but we all walked, and finished, together. I am hoping to do another event next year.''

Adele Graham, who is a friend of the family, will also be doing a skydive next month to raise cash for the Sick Children's Trust.