He's wearing a borrowed pair of shoes, a size too big as his feet have still to settle down back to normal after successfully completing the Long Distance Walking Association's Yoredale 100 test over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Although the blisters on his heels are healing, a nasty one on one of John's big toes is still giving him trouble but one thing is for sure - he wouldn't have missed it for the world.

John, of Higher Eastwood, is delighted with his personal achievement in finishing the two-day walk, which took place over 100 miles in some beautiful Yorkshire Dales scenery, and hopes to raise as much money as possible for Cancer Research UK through the challenge.

Now 54, John, first raised money for the charity when he was 50, walking the Mary Towneley Loop bridleway, after losing close friends to the disease and when he heard the LDWA's annual tester was coming to some of his favourite walking country in Yorkshire decided to go for it.

And the walk turned out as he expected it - nothing less than a thoroughly testing challenge physically and mentally, with the weather conditions adding to the task and causing problems for many walkers with 110 of the 490 dropping out.

John explained: "It was windy here that weekend and it was even windier in the Dales. Getting past Ingleborough was by far the hardest part on the first day because of the wind which was 40 miles an hour.

"The dust and grit it was blowing up because the ground was so dry meant that some of the walkers who wore contact lenses had to give up because of it getting in their eyes. My lips were salved but they still got cracked and I had to drink more fluid," he said.

Dry weather in the weeks leading up to the event also largely accounted for the toll on John's feet. He hadn't blistered for more than 20 years until this walk when dry weather turned muddy tracks that would have offered respite rock hard and rutted and springy turf was baked and cracked.

"I started getting blisters on my feet at 25 miles and that was a real downer with three quarters of the walk to go," he said.

John's training had twice been interrupted by injury or illness in the months leading up to the walk and walking friends from Calderdale wondered if he had got enough miles in his legs. Surprisingly, he says, his thighs were good and that was no problem.

Planning is crucial to a task of this size and thinking it all out is as important of the physical side, he says. "I had all the mental markers and I think it is crucial because it is such a slow accumulation of your miles," he said.

By the later stages of the walk fatigue, both physical and mental have set in and when some of the walking is done on tracks in the dark concentration has to be maintained to avoid injury or simply getting lost. "There's danger all around in the dark even though walkers have torches," he said.

There were reviving moments too.