A VICAR has spoken of her plans to mark her retirement from a York parish by walking 1,200 miles in a bid to raise £45,000 for Christian Aid.

The former Vicar of Heslington, the Rev Nancy Eckersley, 60, and her husband John, 68, will trek ing from Land’s End to John O’Groats over five months on a circuitous route across Britain.

They are looking for £10,000 in donations, and say the European Commission will match-fund that with an extra £35,000 to help pay for clean water supplies and farming improvements in Sierra Leone.

The African country, about the size of Scotland, suffered a brutal civil war in 2002 and was one of the poorest countries on earth, with the average life expectancy being 47 years.

Nancy, who has retired as Vicar of Heslington Church after almost 11 years and previously worked at Clifton Moor, said: “The Christian Aid Partnership Project aims to improve farming and to provide clean water in two parts of the country.”

The Eckersleys said the shortest possible route for their walk was 868 miles, but they had opted to stay off road whenever feasible.

They would steer off course to call at their planned new home at Flamborough which, by coincidence, was exactly half-way along the route.

They planned to start on April Fools’ Day and walk a “leisurely” ten to 12 miles a day, resting one day a week, and allowing themselves time to investigate places of interest along the way.

Nancy said they were aiming to reach John O’Groats by August 28.

John said they were taking a finger signpost with them along the way, which they would put up at each stop and which would indicate how many miles they had walked and how many they still had to go.

* Anyone wanting to make a donation can either visit the couple’s website, johneckersley.wordpress.com, which will carry a blog describing their progress during the walk, or send cheques payable to Christian Aid to Jill Johnson, 45, Vyner House, Front Street, Acomb, York YO24 3DW, indicating the gift is intended for the Eckersley’s walk.