AROUND sixty miles and some hills later, five intrepid walkers completed their trek to raise money for the Robert Johns Leukaemia Fund on Friday, September 10.

As well as raising money for the Week St Mary based charity, Paul Hamlyn, Roy Cobbledick, Bob Johns, Hazel Cartwright and Jo James — along with Colin Taylor as support driver — also used the walk to celebrate the year of each of their birthday landmarks (50, 65, 70, 60 and 40). The group decided to carry out their walk following the course of the River Tamar.

Walking commenced at 9.30am on Wednesday, September 8 from the Tamar's source near Kilkhampton. On the first day they were greeted by the Mayor of Bude and Stratton, Cllr Peter Moores.

After receiving some supplies kindly provided by Arthur and Christine Newton near Red Post, they completed nearly half of the walk — around 25 miles, which led them to the Countryman Inn, and this would be the starting point for the next day's stretch of walk to The Swingle Tree pub, Kelly Bray.

After some well earned rest, walking continued on Thursday, September 9 and after hiking up St Thomas Hill,?Launceston, and with the sun shining, the group received a warm welcome from Mayor and Mayoress of Launceston, Paul and Rosemary O'Brien.

Linda Cobbledick, Roy's wife, was also following the walkers providing support along the way. She said: "The first day went extremely well, they did over 20 miles and it was dry all day."

Even though it may have been around lunch time when walkers arrived in Launceston, Linda said that they were off to have some breakfast.

Whilst in the Square, walker Bob Johns commented that "uphills was the worst."

After a pit stop and another ten miles later, they reached The Swingle Tree pub at Kelly Bray, ready for the third and final stretch of walk the next day.

Following three days of walking up and down hills, and some improvisation from kitchen scour pads — to prevent sore feet, the five walkers successfully reached their final destination on Friday,?September 10, at around 3.30pm and received a warm welcome from friends, family, the Mayor and Mayoress of Saltash and representatives from Derriford Hospital.

The event successfully raised over £3,000 for the Robert Johns Leukaemia Fund. Huge thanks have been extended to everyone for the outstanding support, to the businesses who kindly provided refreshments along the walk, to all friends and family who have supported them and to the many who gave donations along the way.

Paul Hamlyn added: "A big thank you for assistance in making the journey comfortable. We were lucky with the weather and motorists were extremely patient and kind."

Thankfully there were no beeping of horns due to irateness, however plenty of beeping of horns and flashing of lights in support of the walkers.

When asked if there were any more 'milestone walks' in the pipeline, Paul replied: "We have discussed this and we all agree that this was our one and only milestone walk.

"All in all it was brilliant, we were all in high spirits and all thoroughly enjoyed it and even better for raising a bit of money along the way."

For more pictures from the walk, see this week's 'Post'.