Ian from Ross to fly across Oz

9:40am Thursday 3rd July 2008

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A HEREFORDSHIRE man is about to fly himself thousands of miles across Australia after a TV programme made him feel life was passing him by.

Documentary crews will follow Ian Nuttall, aged 49, in his microlight from Perth to Brisbane after the BBC series in which actor Ewan McGregor biked around the world inspired him to do something different.

Mr Nuttall, from Ross-on-Wye, and best friend Jon Ingram decided on it over a beer and, after both losing their mothers to cancer, decided to raise charity funds too.

They will spend most of July and August soaring above some of the most remote territory on earth for Leukaemia Research – and also, Ian admits, for the thrill of it after learning to fly microlights.

“I thought, I’m going to do something for me, so I phoned up my best mate and said ‘come on, life is passing us by, we need to do something’. So we had a chat over a beer about what we could do – motorbiking, parachuting – and came up with microlighting. We had never been in one, seen one or touched one,” he said.

They will join UK pilots Dave Seymour and Derek Chamberlain on the 5,500 mile trip, covering up to 250 miles a day.

Supported by a ground team of 16 they plan to raise £100,000 in tribute to Mr Nuttall’s sister-inlaw, who has leukaemia, and also for the Flying Doctors Service in Australia.

All will have survival training to help them camp among the world’s deadliest creatures in areas where houses are often 600 miles apart. Mr Nuttall said: “We have turned the dream into reality. My wife thinks I’m mad, but she understands it’s one of those ‘boys toys’ things that has to be done.”

To donate to the cause visit youvegotwings.com