BORDERS rugby star Stuart Hogg is putting his best foot forward in a bid to help war-ravaged communities in Syria.

The Scotland and Glasgow Warriors full back from Hawick has teamed up with television star Camilla Thurlow to launch Walk for Syria.

The 30 kilometre challenge in the hills of Dumfries and Galloway aims to raise much-needed cash to fund The HALO Trust's education programmes in the devastated Arab republic.

Stuart said: “I wanted to get involved to support The HALO Trust partly because I am a Borders boy and I think it’s great that Scotland’s largest international charity is based just outside the Borders.

"It is easy to look at terrible things happening far away and think there is nothing you can do.

"But there is something you can do – you can put on your walking boots and raise some sponsorship money and join me on the Walk for Syria.”

The HALO Trust, which was founded in 1988, is the world’s largest humanitarian mine clearance organisation.

Based near Moffat, HALO creates safe and secure environments in war torn communities by clearing landmines, and explosive debris, managing stockpiles of weapons and destroying unexploded ordnance.

Syria's streets and schools, homes and fields are littered with the explosive debris of war.

After seven years of fighting, the UN estimates that over eight million people are in danger from huge quantities of unexploded shells, cluster bombs and other explosive debris.

Where there has been heavy fighting, half of all homes are contaminated by explosives.

In surveys, almost 90 per cent of Syrians say explosive debris is their main safety concern.

HALO is beginning to clear Syria of explosives, but it’s an enormous task which will take years of work.

And they urgently need to educate people about the risks of war debris and how to stay as safe as possible among it.

TV star Camilla told us: “I worked for The HALO Trust and I know the enormous difference it makes to countries in conflict.

"It makes people safer, it removes landmines and it destroys unexploded bombs and shells.

"It helps countries get back on their feet and people back in their homes.

"There aren’t many places where that work is needed more desperately and urgently than Syria.”

The HALO Trust has done similar operations in countries such as Afghanistan and Cambodia.

HALO’s risk education sessions explain the dangers of explosives, how to identify them and how to act safely around them.

And they train locals to teach classes in their own communities, where they particularly focus on children.

The target of HALO’s Walk for Syria is to expand its risk education programme so it can reach tens of thousands of the most at-risk families.

Simon Conway, HALO’s director of strategy, said: "Syria is the great humanitarian challenge of our times.

“HALO is already on the ground removing explosives and teaching people how to be safe.

"Everyone who joins the Walk for Syria helps us protect more people more quickly.”

The Walk for Syria starts and finishes on Saturday, June 23 in the Dumfriesshire town of Thornhill.

The 30 kilometre route takes in some of the most spectacular scenery the South of Scotland has to offer.

To take part in HALO’s Walk for Syria register at www.walkforsyria.org.