ROGER Allton is walking coast to coast for his church – at the age of 78.
The fearless walker is battling wind and rain to walk the 192 miles from St Bees Head to Robin Hood's Bay.
Mr Allton, of Radcliffe, is tackling the Coast-to-Coast walk devised by legendary British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator Alfred Wainwright to raise money for the Radcliffe-on-Trent Methodist and Community Project, of which he is the chairman.
Radcliffe-on-Trent Methodist Church minister Janet Tanner said she was thinking of Mr Allton on his epic trek, adding: "The aim of the project is to build a brand new church on the site of our current church, by 2016.
"At the moment our church is bulging at the seams.
"We barely have enough room for our current congregations on Sundays so it is difficult to see how we could grow. The project will provide a bigger worship area and a new community space which we don't have at the moment.
"Roger's walk is brilliant.
"He has had such awful weather so far but he isn't letting it stop him at all.
"We're all very proud of him."
Mr Allton is aiming to raise £2,500 in sponsorship towards the £1.25m total cost of rebuilding the church.
He set out on the walk from the east coast to the west coast of the country on May 10 and has been keeping friends at home updated through e-mails. He expects to complete the challenge within 20 days.
Roger, who has run 45 half marathons and two marathons, said on day three of the walk: "We started later today at about 10am with a sprinkling of hail in the air.
"Then the sun came out for about a half hour, then driving hail and a 30mph wind. This was while climbing Linning Crag which is about 1,200ft. All the paths were running with at least two inches of water. I tried to keep my boots dry, but they were sodden in no time. It was a hard climb for me, after the day before.
"We walked along Far Easedale to the Butharlyp YHA arriving about 5pm. According to Wainright's book we are at 37.5 miles from the start – it feels far more."
Mr Allton completed the first 100 miles to Keld with the Radcliffe U3A group before continuing to Richmond with three members and the last 70 miles on his own.
Anyone who would like to sponsor him can contact him by e-mail at rogerallton@hotmail.co.uk or go to his online page at www.btplc.com/mydonate and type in his name.
