AN endurance athlete is to run across east Africa to try to uncover the secrets to the success of the region's world champions.

Dr Andrew Murray, from Edinburgh, will team up with ex-marine commando Donnie Campbell for the 18-day quest next month.

The pair will run more than 50km each day and scale both Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro, joined by record holders and world champions along the route.

Kenya won 17 medals at the 2011 Athletics World Championships, with 10 going to former pupils of St Patrick's High School in the town of Iten in the Rift Valley. Dr Murray, a sports and exercise medicine doctor with the sportscotland Institute of Sport who has also worked as the Scottish Government's exercise tzar, will explore how east African athletes are so successful.

He hopes any lessons learned can help Scottish runners, and is also raising money for the African Palliative Care Association and aiming to collect 500 pairs of trainers to take to Africa.