NINE men and a dog set off next month on a sponsored walk along the path of an old railway line to raise cash for a children’s hospital.

Workmates at St Helens Central Railway Station will trudge the 12 miles along the Wirral Way from West Kirby to Hooton on Saturday, December 1.

All the money will go to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in time for Christmas.

Malcolm Campbell, 51, from Prescot, who works at St Helens Central, said: “Everyone knows about the hospital or knows someone whose kid has been in there.

“There will be nine of us aged between 22 and 61 doing the walk, which is 12.2 miles.

“Some are fat, some are thin; some have bad backs and some have bad knees.

“The reason we picked that particular walk is that there’s no get out. You can’t go back.”

He explained why they had called the sponsored event the George’s Walk.

He said: “There was a guy who would come into the station, a lovely fella who called everyone George.

The name stuck, and we call everyone George, even the penguin in the station.

“Although we’ll be walking 12 miles, my Jack Russell Finn is only little, so it will feel like 36 to him.”

Anyone can make a cash donation at St Helens Central station or sign one of their sponsor forms.