A RETIRED York vicar and her husband are delighted after completing a sponsored walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

The Reverend Nancy Eckersley, 60, former vicar of Heslington, and her husband, John, 68, arrived in warm sunshine to be greeted by a welcome party, including parishioners from Heslington.

The couple were given a picnic of Cornish wafers, Yorkshire cheese and single malt whisky from Caithness.

“We have had a wonderful time with so many people and churches getting involved with us as we have travelled,” said Nancy. “Money is still coming in as there are those who have promised money for when we finish.”

The couple’s 1,280-mile trek, which began at the Cornish headland in April, has raised tens of thousands of pounds through sponsorship and European Union match-funding for a Christian Aid project to provide clean water supplies and carry out farming improvements in Sierra Leone.

The country is one of the poorest on earth, with life expectancy of only 47 years and with only 50 per cent of the population having safe drinking water The Eckersleys began their walk by following the South-West Coastal Path to Minehead before going cross-country to Bath and picking up the Thames Path to Oxford, then cutting through the East Midlands to the Humber Bridge and Hull.

At this point, they called in at Badger Hill and Archbishop Holgate schools in York to update pupils on their adventures on the trek so far.

They then followed the North Sea coastline all the way to Edinburgh before crossing to Glasgow to take the West Highland Way to Fort William. After that, the Great Glen Way took them over to Inverness and then on the final section they followed the east Scottish coast to John O’Groats.

• To donate to the couple’s Just Giving page, visit johneckersley.wordpress.com, where supporters have made donations and also posted comments praising the couple for their “fantastic achievement”.