A MAN injured while serving his country is travelling around Chard and Ilminster as part of his quest to document every war memorial in the country.

Mark Newton, who lives with his two cats in a small trailer attached to his mobility scooter, started his UK-wide challenge after being made redundant in 2010 from his job at a college in Swansea.

He has since raised more than £52,000 with Gift Aid through donations on his website and bucket collecting outside Tesco.

"It's bonkers, it really is bonkers," Mark said.

Mark has already completed Taunton and the surrounding area, and is now working his work through Chard, Ilminster and Crewkerne.

He added: "I travel with my two cats, Smudge and Missy, who are 12 and three. They stay with the trailer when I got out on my mobility scooter in the day. They are spoilt rotten.

"The largest cemetery I have done was Tidworth. It had 910 graves.

"A memorial can be anything from a stone at the side of the road to a bronze plaque."

He believes it will take him more than two months to photograph all the war graves and memorials in the county and around 10 years to complete the whole of Britain.

Mark, who funds his adventures with his war pension, has already completed all the coastal war graves in a journey that took 596 days, and has also photographed all of Devon and Wiltshire's memorials and graves.

He served in the army for almost seven years in the 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards before an injury to his right leg in Cyprus in 1991 led to him being discharged.

Mark is often identified by his distinctive sponsor-covered Beamer Tramper TWS scooter and his motorbike rider's jacket.

Mark added: "The scooter has done 17,000 miles in two-and-a-half years. I got it serviced just before starting on Somerset. They said I had put it through 10 to 15 years of use in two years.

"I have got a little heating in the trailer and a sleeping bag. There's more room in my trailer than there was in my tank.

"The jacket is what motorbike riders wear and I am a member of the Royal British legion Riders Branch. It is the biggest branch of the British Legion with 6,000-odd members now, I think.

"I try not to go anywhere when it is raining. I work pretty much every day and I would take a day off only to collect money at Tesco or do some washing.

"What I take in buckets probably makes up about three-quarters of my donations.

"I had a guy in Kent give me £350. He was ex-forces and he said 'I have done alright since leaving the army' and he pulled out seven £50 notes."

To monitor Mark's progress, visit aroundbritain.org.uk, or to see his photographs visit war-graves.co.uk.