A FORMER army serviceman from Marlow will be treading in the footsteps of hundreds who escaped Nazi-controlled France during the Second World War to raise money for charity.

Iain Robertson is hoping to raise £2,000 for the Royal British Legion by taking part in this year's 'Freedom Trail' through the Pyrenees.

A total of 782 French and Jewish people and shot-down Allied airmen used three escape routes through the mountains to flee to Spain, which was neutral during the war.

Since then it has become an annual event for people to walk one of the escape lines to commemorate those who used the route nearly 70 years ago and raise money at the same time.

Mr Robertson, who was in the army for nine years, found out about the Freedom Walk through friend Simon Hutchinson from Shaftesbury, Dorset, who will be joining him on the walk.

The 60-year-old, from Terrington Hill, said: “It goes over the route escapees would have used during the war. It passes through the exact locations people of all ages walked to keep alive the memory of what was a pretty challenging way out.”

Mr Robertson, who retires at the end of July after running his own internet hosting business for the last 16 years, said he had been doing lots of walking in preparation for the quest.

He said: “I have done quite a lot of walking in recent years. I have been walking half of the coast-to-coast path, across the Yorkshire Dales and Moors, and I have been training in the Brecons.”

He starts the walk on July 6, and aims to raise more money in other walking events in the future.

For more details, or to sponsor Mr Robertson, go to www.bmycharity.com/V2/2010freedomtrail.