A WIMBORNE man is running an ultra marathon in Afghanistan’s Camp Bastion – inspired by the scars of conflict he sees around him.

Iain Trickett is a civilian working on vehicle maintenance and is usually based at Bovington Camp with the Defence Support Group.

The 27-year-old former Queen Elizabeth’s School pupil has been fitting in training for the 50-mile course around a working week of up to 82 hours.

Iain said that if he completed the distance within 14 hours he would just keep going until he reached that deadline – he hopes to perhaps even reach 75 miles.

“I want to give back something to those who have suffered to protect us,” he told the Echo.

“Military personnel who are injured pay such a high price – they suffer mental and physical scars and some of them who want to stay in their jobs cannot because of compulsory redundancy. My brother is a Royal Marine commando and suffered an injury which is more than likely going to end up resulting in a medical discharge, so that’s my biggest motivation.”

The ultramarathon follows a 7.5km course and Iain will need to drink more than 14 litres of fluid and eat around 11,000 calories to keep going.

He recently finished 7th out of more than 600 runners in the Camp Bastion marathon and last month finished first in a US Air Force-organised 5km run with a time of 17 minutes 10 seconds.

Iain arrived in April and will spend 12-13 months in the country. Money goes to the Royal Marines Benevolent Fund.

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/trickysultra marathon .