FOUR fathers from Whitchurch Primary School recently completed a gruelling two-day challenge, trekking 62 and a half miles in under 30 hours.

Mark Muncey, Mike Gray, Matthew Venner and Andrew Bickleigh completed the Trailwalker UK in 26 and a half hours along with their four other team-mates from Plymouth.

Although trekkers are supposed to be in teams of four, the Tavistock men joined the Plymouth men, team names Band of Plodders and Plodders in Arms, to complete the challenge together.

Trailwalker was originally started by the Queen's Gurkha Signals Regiment more than 30 years ago as a training exercise to test soldiers' stamina and teamwork skills.

The challenge is to complete the 100km Trailwalker trail across the South Downs in under 30 hours, while raising money to help people in poverty through Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

The teams raised around £4,200 by completing the challenge, and are still collecting money from sponsors.

Mark Muncey said: 'We'd been training since January, it was such a fantastic event and such a team effort. Even the adverse weather didn't stop us.

'We walked all through the night but because of the rain we had to keep stopping to change our clothes. We were incredibly proud to have finished it, although it was hard.

'We were really pleased with the amount of money we raised, we had a target of £3,000 but we are well over £4,000 now. We are very grateful for all the support from the Tavistock community.'