A charitable daredevil is set to hurtle across Europe’s largest ice cap using nothing but a kite in a bid to break a world record and raise cash for those with spine injuries.

Robert Brown, 37, from Mountfort Terrace, Barnsbury, is gearing up to snowkite across Vatnajökull – an inhospitable 8,000 km glacier in Iceland – to raise £25,000 for Wings for Life, a charity set up to find a cure for spinal cord injury.

Snowkiting is an adventure sport where people use a kite and the power of the wind to glide across the snow on their boots.

The challenge is made even more ambitious by the fact that Mr Brown’s team for the assault – Four People, Six Legs – includes ex-paralympian Sean Rose, who is confined to a wheelchair after a skiing accident left him paralysed from the waist down.

Mr Brown said: “I’m nervous about all of the possible dangers that we could face on the glacier and the extreme weather conditions.

“We’re compliantly reliant on the wind to carry us across the glacier.”

The brave explorers will cover over 300km of uninhabited frozen landscape subject to arctic temperatures, terrifying sink holes and live volcanoes at every turn.

This expedition marks the first time in history that a non-able bodied athlete, Mr Rose, will cross Vatnajökull.

Mr Brown said: “If the wind doesn’t cooperate, we have enough supplies to last 10 days. At that point, we’ll have to pick up the satellite telephone and call Iceland Search and Rescue to come and pick us up.”

Along with the Four People, Six Legs crew, Mr Brown is set to turn his dream into a reality in April when they take on the intimidating ice cap.

Wings For Life are committed, through research and clinical trials, to help the 98 per cent of spinal cord injury victims who never recover from paralysis.

For more information about the charity, visit www.wingsforlife.com.