'Walking my cat 100 miles proves doubters wrong'

Charly Allso said her rescue cat Evelyn was pushing her on to complete her challenge

A woman with a rare inflammatory disease is walking a total of 100 miles (161km) in February with her deaf rescue cat to raise money for charity.

Charly Allso, from Solihull, plans to carry former stray Evelyn in a backpack and also at times walk her on a lead to chalk up miles across the UK.

She will donate funds she raises to Solihull Hospital and Vasculitis UK after spending much of her early 20s hospitalised by illness.

"Yes I've got a disability, yes I've got a deaf cat but if I put my mind to something, I'm going to do it," she said.

Ms Allso rescued Evelyn as a stray and said taking her out on walks made her pet happy

The 28-year-old was diagnosed with Urticarial Vasculitis five years ago and later connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

"I'll come out in blisters, I'll come out in hives, my joints swell up, I get really tired," she said.

"It affects my mood quite a lot as well."

She remembered attending a support group for others with the condition which she said was filled with "pensioners".

"When I was first diagnosed I didn't know that people like me existed," she said.

"I want to spread awareness, really, for young people with disabilities.

"When you see someone with a stick or with a feeding tube you think, 'they're in hospital, they're not doing these things'."

Ms Allso has already completed 28 miles (45km) on routes around Solihull including a 17-mile (27km) canal walk

She plans to take Evelyn up a mountain and on to a beach during the month-long challenge and hopes to get "as far as possible".

"She sits on my shoulder, she goes in her backpack, she has got a stroller she uses sometimes," she said.

"We don't get anywhere very quickly."

Ms Allso first started taking Evelyn out on walks for the cat's wellbeing.

"I don't let her go out by herself as she's deaf and I feel like it would be far too dangerous," she said.

"I get so many funny looks but I'd much rather they come up and ask me.

"I get a lot of attention myself as I've got a visible feeding tube, I walk with a stick."

She rescued her pet after she said she found a group of schoolchildren kicking her about "like a football".

After discovering she was a stray, she decided to keep her.

"Evelyn is really pushing me on because without her I wouldn't be doing these things," she said. "I don't want her to always be that stray cat I found on Melton Avenue.

"Yeah she had a really bad start [but] we're making something of it, we're doing something that she enjoys."

Evelyn accompanies her owner on walks in a backpack, sitting on her shoulder and also walks on a lead

With treatment at "a bit of a standstill", Ms Allso is unsure of the next steps in managing her health.

However she credited her "amazing" consultant at Solihull Hospital for helping her "more times than I can remember".

"It's hard not knowing and it's hard not having a simple answer," she said. "Honestly, I don't know where I'd be without her.

"It was fate that she was there and she's not given up on me yet."