Football fans tackle 23-mile walk for veterans charity
Steve DarbyMore than 45 Brighton and Hove Albion and Portsmouth Football Club supporters have set off on a 23-mile (37km) walking tour in Normandy to raise money for Blind Veterans UK.
The group, which left from Portsmouth on Thursday night after watching Brighton draw in the Europa Conference League, also includes five blind veterans.
Before returning home on Sunday they will visit a number of significant sites, including Pegasus Bridge, Ver-sur-Mer and the British Normandy Memorial.
Organiser Steve Darby said the group were going to pay their "respects to those who didn't make it" and "those that came back and suffered with eye loss and other conditions".
On Friday morning the group are due to arrive in Ouistreham near Sword Beach, the most easterly of the five beaches where the Allied forces landed on 6 June, 1944.
Darby said it was a "very emotional place".
They will end the tour at the British Normandy Memorial, which records the names of the 22,442 people who were killed on D-Day and at the Battle of Normandy, where the group will unveil a plaque.
The decision to bring five blind veterans is to honour the same number who were involved in the D-Day landings, said Darby.
All proceeds will go to the Blind Veterans UK charity, which has a regional hub in Rustington.
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