RAY Evans has raised more than £2,000 for cancer charities by walking 850 miles across France.

Mr Evans, 47, from Drews Park, Devizes, completed his odyssey on September 19, arriving in Nice, on the Riviera, eight weeks after leaving Strasbourg, in northern France.

He said: "It has always been my ambition to do something like this. France is criss-crossed with footpaths and this one goes right down the eastern side of the country. I have read a couple of books by people who have done it and I was determined to follow in their footsteps."

Mr Evans, who is taking a career break from his job as an IT director, has always been keen on walking and cycling but had never attempted anything as gruelling as this.

He said: "It was the most wonderful experience and everything I hoped it would be. I passed through some beautiful countryside, especially the parts that go across mountains."

During the trip, Mr Evans walked 17 or 18 miles a day carrying a backpack weighing around 15 kilos and stayed in cheap hotels and isolated mountain huts. He is already planning another challenge, although he is not sure what that might be.

Mr Evans, a single man, has managed to raise £1,000 each for Cancer Research UK and the hospice in Sussex where his mother spent her last days after being diagnosed with cancer.