A FORMER York rugby player is making final preparations to run more than a thousand miles across Australia to raise money for charity.

Robbie Dolan is originally from Holgate and played for York Acorn and York Lokomotives before moving to Huddersfield and Bedford, where he plays for Bedford Tigers RLFC.

Next month, to coincide with the 2017 Rugby World Cup, he will run 1,118 miles from Melbourne to Brisbane over 42 days while carrying a rugby ball, in a charity challenge he has called The Longest Try.

He said: “We’ve tried to get a main financial sponsor over the last few months but it’s not happened, so the budget means it’s going to cost me quite a lot, but we’ve had a bit of drip feeding from some sponsors.”

Thanks to generous donations, Robbie has been given training sessions in the UK, and offered a motorhome for his girlfriend to drive while he is on his run.

He said: “To buy that would cost thousands of dollars, and to rent it for the time we have would probably cost about £7,000, so he’s saved us a lot of money and made the trip financially viable.”

Robbie said he had been working with a cartographer in New South Wales to organise the best routes for his journey, and is trying to drum up interest with local Australian news outlets.

He has chosen a vintage, leather rugby ball from the 1950s to carry throughout his journey as a tribute to his grandfather, and is also running in memory of his mother, who died while he was on a scouting trip to Australia last year.

Robbie said: “I got into rugby league through my granddad and it’s nice to hold a ball like he used to play with and wonder how the hell he used to play with it, because it’s an awful thing to hold.

“It’s strange being without mum, and I think it will be an incredibly emotional journey. I’m sort of preparing myself for that, because I can feel it already.” Robbie is raising money for The Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, which supports children with life-changing illnesses, as well as The Children’s Tumour Foundation of Australia and Miracle Babies Foundation.

To donate go to thelongesttry.com