Patient travels 300 miles for charity on £2 bus fares

Kate Walter travelled from Wiltshire to Yorkshire for charity using only £2 bus fares

A cancer patient in Wiltshire has travelled more than 300 miles (482km) across England to raise awareness for charity using £2 bus fares.

Kate Walter, who has stage four lung cancer, journeyed from her home in Wootton Bassett to Hadrian's Wall, before finishing in Yorkshire.

Despite her health being "up and down", Ms Walter undertook the mammoth trip to raise awareness of Macmillan Cancer Support - the charity that helped her when she was "absolutely destitute".

"They literally gave me back my dignity," she said.

'Dire financial straits'

It has been a tough year for Ms Walter. After being diagnosed with cancer, her fiancé "dumped" her in Australia.

She said when she returned to the UK she had less than £10.

"I was weeping bitter tears over an empty tube of toothpaste," she recalled.

"The thought at my age that I had to ask my brother for toothpaste just nearly killed me.

"Macmillan was absolutely amazing - from reassurance over the phone, the advisors, the counsellors.

"What a lot of people don't know is that they are able to send people who are in dire financial straits with their cancer diagnosis a grant cheque."

After accessing an old pension fund, she began looking for a job. While online, she spotted an announcement about the government's £2 bus-cap scheme that applies to tickets for single journeys at any time of day until December.

'A lot of people spiral'

"I was like 'oh my gosh', you can get all the way from Swindon to Oxford for £2 or you can go all the way to Cheltenham.

"I then thought, 'if you can go all the way to Cheltenham for £2, where else can you get to from Cheltenham?'

"This little idea started formulating - I wanted to give back to Macmillan for all that they had done for me.

"They plug such a gap with cancer patients. Nurses come to your home - one day I'm going to need that."

Ms Walter said she takes "each day as it comes" with her lung cancer.

"With this disease, life gets carved up into six week chunks of treatment, scans and blood tests.

"A lot of people spiral and again that's where Macmillan comes in with the counselling."

Describing her bus trips across the country, she said: "It's been incredible."

"There have been so many amazing stories," from people she has met along the way whose families have been helped by Macmillan Cancer Support.

Ms Walter added: "All we ever have is today - so you have just got to get out there and live for today."