Derivatives veterans Kevin Green and Seamus Hoole are planning to raise vital cash for Motor Neurone Disease research by walking 800 kilometres through Spain.

Green and Hoole, who worked together in the 80s and live near each other in rural Kent, began walking the North Downs in lockdown.

What started as an excuse to leave the house, soon became a little more serious with the pair planning routes and setting off early on their 10 milers.

And before long, talk turned over a cold drink to the possibility of the friends tackling a greater challenge, and raising some money for a charity.

Green worked with Dave Setters at First Chicago Futures in the 1980s and they have remained friends ever since, particularly in recent years as Setters has adjusted to the effects of MND.

The Motor Neurone Disease Association, then, was the obvious choice and, mindful of the need for research into the debilitating disease, the pair agreed to go big on the walk.

The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is the 800 km route of an ancient pilgrimage through Northern Spain.

Our intrepid explorers will start in late August on the French side of the Pyrenees before passing through the mountains and heading west to the south of Bilbao and Santander (ironically where Green and Hoole worked a few years ago – the bank, not the city).

As if the walk is not daunting enough, the pair have promised to take photos and upload them to a website so supporters and masochists in the UK and beyond can enjoy their progress.

Their efforts will end, after five weeks, at the ancient city of Santiago de Compostela, the reputed resting place of St. James in Spain’s extreme north-west corner.

Green said: “We’ve only just started our fundraising efforts but we’re already blown away by how many people we have spoken to who either have family members or friends who have had this brutal disease. We really do need to find that cure.”

To support Green and Hoole, please make a donation to the MND Association at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kevin-seamus?fbclid=IwAR0EHFZRwCWIB7ndSVsLq6CyIwNmeViQl6Uai-0NLR21NI21JaMXBqcWv2Q

To track their progress online from August 31, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/996438164363153