A Welsh journalist is in training for two long-distance charity events.

Jem King, 51, assistant head of sport at Media Wales, which publishes titles including the Western Mail, will this month take part in a 26-mile marathon Memory Walk from Stonehenge to Avebury for the Alzheimer’s Society.

He will then fly to Asia in the new year to take part in Cycle India 2012, a 350km bike ride raising money for the UK-based children’s charity HEAL.

This will be the second time he has done the Cycle India event, which is held every two years. He previously raised £2,500 and has been training every day for the upcoming trek.

Jem, who has worked at the newspapers for 25 years, said: “A few years ago I began sponsoring a young girl, Anusha, through HEAL. Like many of her school friends at the charity’s Children’s Village in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, Anusha comes from a disadvantaged background in a poor rural region of southern India.

“Two years ago, I was lucky enough to meet her.

“Having survived, and successfully completed, Cycle India 2010,  I was taken, along with the other cyclists, to visit the Children’s Village where HEAL does so much work to give underprivileged kids – many of them orphans – shelter, healthcare and a proper education.

“There, waiting to greet me was Anusha in what proved to be one of the most emotional days of my life. After visiting her school and meeting her friends and the staff who look after them, Anusha asked if I would come back to visit again and I had no hesitation in saying I would.

Added Jem: “I used my contacts in the newspaper to get items to auction off last time. India are playing in Cardiff in a few weeks so I’m hoping to get a signed cricket bat.”

All the money raised from Cycle India will go directly into the cost of creating and developing a ‘Paradise Village’, which aims to take another 1,000 severely disadvantaged children under its wing.

Land has already been purchased, and potential sponsors are being encouraged to ‘buy’ a schoolroom to pay for the ambitious project.

Jem has fundraising pages online at justgiving.com/Jem-King (for the Alzheimer’ Society) and justgiving.com/Jem-King2012 (for HEAL).