Coventry great-grandfather raises £12k in year-long walking challenge

Mr Cunningham was joined by other walkers for the first day of his challenge

A great-grandfather has completed a year-long walking challenge and raised £12,000 for charity.

Tony Cunningham, 73, from Coventry, pledged to walk 10 miles a day throughout 2022, and finished his final lap of the city's Memorial Park on New Year's Eve.

Donations will be given to Molly Ollys Wishes, a Warwickshire charity which supports children with terminal or life-limiting illnesses, and their families.

"I had to really push myself," he said.

"It is not about me, it is about the charity and the families they look after."

Each day come rain or shine, Mr Cunningham walked laps of Coventry's Memorial Park

Despite spates of cold weather and a number of heavy rainfalls throughout the year, Mr Cunningham persevered as he "didn't want to fail his commitment".

Meeting the parents of children who have been helped by the charity is what spurred him to keep going, he said.

He was not alone on the challenge. Often park users would join him on the daily stroll, along with family members and he was also joined on a one-off visit from the Lord Mayor of Coventry, John McNicholas.

The money raised will be donated to the Warwickshire-based children's charity

Mr Cunningham, who has had a quadruple heart bypass operation, said he also did the challenge in memory of his wife Jackie, who died from lung cancer in 2021.

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