By David Sillifant

LAUNCESTON Rugby Club second team coach Mike Haines and his partner Hannah Pickard have raised almost £1,000 between them after taking on a three trail challenge over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Hannah ran a mile a day during 2021, raising over £2,000 in the process for Bude Rugby Club where she is part of the ladies team, and this time they decided to do something together with Mike picking Cancer Research UK and Hannah, Children’s Hospice South West.

Mike said: “Hannah wanted to do something else for a different charity, and I was helping her with that and decided to do something as well.

“I lost my dad and uncle to cancer so I’ve been wanting to do something for a while. We’ve all been touched by cancer at some point in our lives, so it felt the right thing to do.”

In the end they decided to take on the Tarka Trail in North Devon (64 miles), the Granite Way which runs from Okehampton to Lydford (22 miles), and the Camel Trail which runs from Wenford Bridge on the edge of Bodmin Moor to Padstow (36 miles), meaning 122 miles were clocked up in three days from Friday, August 26 to Sunday, August 28.

Mike continued: “We like doing the trails as a hobby when we get time anyway, so we thought why not do them all in one go, back to back.

“It wasn’t about the miles, it was about raising awareness.

“We did the Tarka Trail on the first day which was 64 miles, and that was a bit of a grueller, especially the last hour.

“The second day we did the Granite Way which went surprisingly well and the third day was the Camel Trail.

“Overall it went a lot better than we thought. After the first day we thought we’d be in for a long slog, but it was a lot easier than we expected.

“We’re already thinking about doing something in the near future, probably more cycling, although it’ll be over a longer distance.”

Mike was quick to thank everybody for their support.

He said: “With the cash as well as the money on the JustGiving page, it’s just over £450 so far and with Hannah’s page closing in on £500, we’re not far off £1,000 between us.

“We’d like to thank everybody for the support, whether that’s family, friends or people down at the rugby club, and even people I don’t really know.

“Everybody’s been really generous. To begin with I set a £200 target so to beat that shows how much fantastic support we’ve had.”

To donate to Mike or Hannah, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mike-haines66 or www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hannah-pickard2