ADVENTUROUS teenager Kyran Young is training for the challenge of a lifetime in order to help protect endangered mountain gorillas.

The 18-year-old Wycliffe College student will be walking 2,663 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail which runs from the US-Mexican border all the way to the Canada.

During the four-month trek, which includes the Mojave Desert, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Mountains, Kyran will face temperatures from 48 degrees Centigrade to -10 degrees Centigrade.

Kyran, who hopes to study Zoology at university, was inspired to take on the challenge after reading about the massacre of 300 elephants in Zimbabwe.

“The poachers had used cyanide and it just really made me start to think about conservation and its importance,” said Kyran, who was born in Zimbabwe but moved to Stonehouse at the age of 12.

Shortly after reading about the elephant masacre Kyran met Ian Redmond, chairman of the Gorilla Organisation, at Stroud Farmers’ Market and is now hoping to raise £10,000 for the charity.

In preparation for his challenge which he will start in May 2015 Kyran, whose dream job would be a mixture of David Attenborough and Bear Grylls, will do a 500-mile trek through the Pyrenees this summer. To sponsor Kyran text GRLA88 and the amount to 70070 or go to www.gorillawalker.com.