WEYMOUTH'S Grace McGowan will take part in a mammoth 25 hour wheelchair rugby challenge being hosted by her team the Dorset Destroyers in a bid to break the world record for the longest time spent playing.

McGowan, 26, explained the inspiration behind it saying that they are hoping to raise money to keep the club going.

There will be an hour of training before 24 hours of match play and the team have begun training hard for the event.

It will take place from Saturday March 17 until Sunday March 18 at the Rossmore Leisure Centre in Poole, who are going to stay open for the duration of the event and have donated the use of the hall for free allowing people to attend throughout the entire event, where they hope to beat the record currently held in Poland.

McGowan said: "It is going to be a massive event, it is for some really good charities.

"I think it is going to be a very good match indeed, it will be very competitive, very intense but a lot of fun as well.

"They have really upped the training so it will be beneficial for future matches for us to be doing this."

The team is aiming to raise £10,000 to help fund new equipment for the club. Money raised will also go towards the Royal Signals Benevolent Fund and Cakes 4 Casualties.

This helps form part of an effort to get a Dorset military wheelchair rugby team set up with players from the military set to face the Destroyers during the 25 hour event.

The team have had two fixtures so far this year, against the Northampton Saints and the Bristol Bears and McGowan says it has been a productive year so far for the Destroyers.

McGowan said: "It has been really good, really excellent.

"We have got have got some new players starting and at the moment we are currently scouting about for more classifiable players to play in the league because you have got to have three limbs impaired for the old league so we have not got a lot of people that are classifiable at the moment."

McGowan explains that there will be a new league starting called the Rugby Fives which will allow more players to classify and take part.

McGowan said: "It is certainly very busy at the moment but it is certainly falling into place."