Former paratrooper Jeffrey Long will tomorrow be marching from RAF Linton to the York street where a Halifax bomber famously crashed in 1945 soon after take-off.

Jeffrey, 88, a veteran charity fund-raiser and MBE, will be making the trek to lay a wooden cross at the site in Nunthorpe Grove where the Halifax crashed. The 11-mile walk is part of a series of walks he is doing, totalling 100 miles in all, to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund and the RNLI.

Jeffrey says he will be defying a bad back and blood cancer to make the walk. The former Para, who lives in Bingley, injured his back during a training jump in 1954. “We only used one ‘chute in those days,” he said. “I hurtled down 500 feet rather quickly!”

The injury he sustained saw him medically discharged from the Parachute Regiment. But neither that, nor being diagnosed with blood cancer a couple of years ago, has stopped him from doing his charity walks.

His first big walk was in 2007 when - then a mere stripling in his mid-seventies - he walked 650 miles from London to Lausanne in Switzerland with a 39 kilo pack on his back (including tent) to raise money for veterans.

It was supposed to be a cycle ride, he said. “But I was never a cyclist, so I walked instead!”

He’s been walking and raising money for charity ever since - including, earlier this year, walking 16 miles a day for 10 days, visiting a different care home every day and raising money for the Care Workers Charity.

The Halifax bomber which crashed in Nunthorpe Grove was among a group of bombers from RAF Linton-on-Ouse which took off on a mission to raid the German city of Chemnitz. But the aircraft were covered in ice, and three crashed soon after take-off.

One came down in Nunthorpe Grove, the fuselage crashing into Nos 26 and 28, killing two elderly people. One of the engines, meanwhile, hit the nearby school. In all, 11 people died and another 18 were injured.

So Jeffrey, a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, who will be meeting the Lord Mayor of York Cllr Janet looker at the site when he arrives tomorrow afternoon at 4pm precisely, says the walk won’t be just about fundraising for charity.

“It is also to honour those who lost their lives,” he said.