Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs is applying for parole in the hope of being freed before his 80th birthday.
A Parole Board meeting is due to consider whether to recommend the release of Biggs, who is currently being held at Norwich prison.
Biggs, from Lambeth, south London, was a member of a 15-strong gang which attacked the Glasgow-to-London mail train at Ledburn, Bucks, on August 8, 1963, before making off with £2.6 million.
He was given a 30-year sentence but escaped from Wandsworth prison, south London, in a furniture van after spending 15 months in jail.
He was on the run for more that 30 years, living in Spain, Australia and Brazil, before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001.
His son, Michael, 34, said last week he was "hopeful" that his father would be freed on July 3 - in time to celebrate his 80th birthday on August 8, exactly 46 years on from the audacious heist.
In February, Biggs was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital suffering from pneumonia.
It was the latest in a series of health problems he had suffered.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw will have the ultimate say on whether Biggs can be released.
