YORK businesswoman Catherine Adamson has raised £10,000 to help two local charities by walking and wild camping the entire length of the Cleveland Way.

Catherine set herself the fundraising target as a way of celebrating the 10th anniversary of her business, Kaleidoscope Virtual Assistant Services.

She wanted to mark the occasion by helping organisations in York that support children and young people, and chose the youth homelessness charity SASH and the children’s charity The Island to share equally in the proceeds of her challenge.

Catherine completed the Cleveland Way in June, carrying with her everything she needed to camp overnight. She covered over 100 miles in seven days and organised other fundraising events in order to finally reach her target of £10,000 in August.

Catherine said: “I had no experience of walking this kind of distance before, or of wild camping, so getting fit and ready really was a challenge. The fundraising was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but so satisfying once I’d done it!

“I got sponsored for my walk, and I held events like a coffee morning, race night and wellbeing day to help meet my fundraising target. People were amazingly generous - I couldn’t have done it without the support of local people and businesses.”