Former York MP Hugh Bayley sets out on 125-mile charity walk from Scarborough to aid Afghan refugees

Sir Hugh Bayley, York’s former MP from 1992-2015, will leave Scarborough on Saturday, August 28 on a 125-mile sponsored walk across Yorkshire to raise money for Afghan refugees.

Mr Bayley said: “Walking seems an appropriate way to show solidarity and raise money because for most Afghan people walking is the only way they have left to escape danger.”

All proceeds raised from the walk will go to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the David Miliband-led charity.

The IRC has 1,700 experienced aid workers in Afghanistan and are continuing to provide help to those who remain in the country. They are already providing emergency cash support to people who fled Afghanistan's capital Kabul but cannot get a flight out.

The charity are reopening health centres, getting girls back into education and running therapeutic 'healing classrooms' for traumastised children.

Hugh Bayley visited Afghanistan seven times when he was an MP and met Afghanis who were building a better lives for themselves and their country, but are now in desperate peril.

To find out more and donate, visit Hugh Bayley's JustGiving page here.