A charity barge pull being backed by the Keighley Cougars will set off from Liverpool on Sunday.

Nurse Emma Fisher, her husband Gavin and eight friends will haul the barge along the canal towpath from Liverpool to Leeds to raise £20,000 in memory of a lung cancer victim.

Cougars team members will meet them at Warehouse Swing Bridge in Kildwick on May 8. The club’s players will give the Fishers and their friends a much-needed break while they take over and pull the barge to Booth’s Swing Bridge in Riddlesden.

Mr and Mrs Fisher, of Thackley, aim to complete the 127-mile challenge in five days. Proceeds will go to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

The event is in memory of Julie Robinson, 48, from Leeds, who defied doctors by surviving for 21 months after they gave her only eight weeks to live when she was diagnosed with aggressive small cell disease. People can donate by going to virginmoneygiving.com/ team/bargepull.

Mrs Fisher said: “It’s going to be gruelling, but anything worth doing is always hard work.

“What we will experience is nothing compared to someone going through chemotherapy, especially if they’ve been given a terminal prognosis.”