Coventry great-grandfather halfway through charity walk

Tony Cunningham has walked the equivalent distance from Coventry to Reykjavik in Iceland

A great-grandfather has reached the halfway mark in a year-long charity walk challenge.

Tony Cunningham, 72, from Coventry, who has had a quadruple heart bypass, pledged to walk ten miles a day throughout 2022.

He has already raised over £4,500 for Warwickshire children's charity Molly Ollys, clocking up 2,500 miles through laps of the city's Memorial Park.

Mr Cunningham said he has been "blown away" by the support he has received.

He is already 450 miles over his halfway target and has not missed a 05:00 start since he began his challenge, which will end with his final walk on New Year's Eve.

"It's been tiring and hard going at times," he said.

"The floods in January were the hardest. I was cold and got absolutely soaked some days.

"There was one day when I was struggling to get round and I thought to myself, what have I taken on here?

"It suddenly dawned on me what a mammoth challenge I'd set myself, but a guy who was jogging the opposite way suddenly stopped in his tracks and just started applauding me. I felt quite emotional at that moment and it gave me a mental boost to carry on."

Molly Olly's Wishes was founded by the parents of Molly Ollerenshaw, who died in 2011 after being diagnosed with cancer

Warwick-based Molly Ollys Wishes was established following the death of Rachel and Tim Ollerenshaw's eight-year-old daughter Molly from a rare kidney cancer.

The charity supports children with terminal or life-limiting illnesses and their families.

Mrs Ollerenshaw said: ""Tony often says he doesn't know if he can do it, but I have no doubt at all that he will smash it."