help with circuit please

Hi Folks
Need help PLEASE with what type of components I need for the follwing .
I am looking for a circuit that will have up to 8 inputs that will send a signal along 2 wires and then illuminate a led to indicate which input has been activated.I have constucted a circuit already but I would need to run a multicore cable, I am trying to learn & understand more about electronics by construction of circuits an this would be for me a good place to start.I have already obtained a basic understanding of Picaxe.
Thank you
regards
nov

The proper way would be to send a serial data stream. Read up on PICAXE UART. Just send a number. Representing the what switch. AFAIK picaxe makes it very easy to send serial data.

When you say 2 wires, you mean one for serial signal and one for ground?
as EternityForest said you could use UART, which is the simplest. But there are also many other interesting things like I2C, 1-Wire. search for I2C bus expenders.
Another question from the top of my head: how long are those 2 wires...? are we talking about inches or foots..?

Thanks for the reply guys in response to ikalogic the length of the wire will be in feet
thanks
nov

Then you may want to consider reading about RS232, basically it's UART but with higher voltage levels, this way, signals can travel longer distances while being immune to noize.