A BIDFORD man sets off next month to walk the 1,000 miles between John O' Groats and Lands End for charity.

David Hughes, a 60-year-old semi-retired country singer from Marleigh Road, is determined to complete the walk in a month, which means covering an average 29 miles a day.

He is putting himself through the gruelling ordeal to raise funds for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, which gathers and maintains a register of bone marrow donors.

He decided to raise funds for the charity after seeing how the Trust found a donor for a small boy in Broom with a rare condition and gave him a second chance.

But he first came up with the idea for the walk after he and his wife lost three close relatives to cancer over the past two years.

His wife's 18-year-old niece died of cancer, followed several months later by his older brother and then shortly after his wife's sister also died of the disease.

"It was devastating for the family. You start to think long and hard," he said.

"What spurs me on more than anything else is the fact that you see these little boys and girls hoping for a donation, it for them means more than anything."

David said he has trained for nine months and gets up each day at 4am to walk 16 miles before breakfast before doing another 10 miles in the evening.

The trek, which starts on September 11, passes through Inverness, Edinburgh and Carlisle before heading to Wigan, Stafford and back to Bidford.

From there David plans to walk through Evesham and Bristol and Bridgwater before passing through St Austell and Redruth in Cornwall on the way to Lands End. Behind him will be the back-up team of his wife June and four of their friends who will drive the van towing the caravan and collect money along the route.

To sponsor David or help with the cost of the walk itself please contact him on 01787 772306.