Hayley said: “I felt fine leading up to the day, but the night before I was so nervous and thought ‘what am I doing?!’. Before we set off we were surrounded by people who were doing the challenge for all different charities, there were people with disabilities, people recovering from cancer – it was a heart warming and inspiring environment to be in.
“Love4Life members also surprised me with a lovely video wishing me luck which was so touching, I have had so much support through donations from friends and family of our members. I have been overwhelmed with the support and encouragement.
“We set off and 3km in my legs started hurting and I thought ‘I’m never going to make this!’. But we carried on going and we were feeling fairly positive as we reached the first check point at 25km. It was a beautiful day, very warm and it was all going really well until we hit the 42km mark. By this point we had been walking for 13 hours.
“It started to get dark and we were told by the marshals that rain was forecast, so the mood changed a lot for everyone. Once we got to Durdle Door there were four cliffs one after the other we had to climb. It was pitch black, people had started dropping out, and mentally this was the toughest part.
“Finally, we got to Weymouth. The last two kilometres were on hard ground rather than the trail we were used to. It was torture – my feet were in so much pain. What kept me going in these hardest moments was knowing I was doing it for Love4Life.
“It was really eye opening for me, I have always been one to say ‘I can’t do it’ when something gets too physically tough. But during the challenge I had no choice, I had to keep going. I really surprised myself.