A PRODIGIOUS walker from Otley is planning a final cross-country pilgrimage for charity.

John Drake, of Ilkley Road, has clocked up thousands of miles over the years as he's trekked across different parts of the UK for good causes.

But on Sunday he will prepare for the single toughest challenge of his fund-raising career, as he sets off from Land's End on a 900-mile trip to John O' Groats, at the very top of Scotland.

The 54-year-old, who is retired, is planning to give his all to what he says will be his last long distance effort.

He said: "This is the last one and it is virtually the longest one you can do, you can't go any further really unless you do the coastal footpath route right around the country, which is thousands of miles long - and I don't really fancy that.

"I shall take 45 days to get up to John O' Groats for Friday, July 1, when hopefully I'll be sitting in the sunshine looking out over the sea. But there will be a short break in Otley midway, for me to do some washing!

"This is 900 miles this time and I don't think I'll be using a footpath once, because I've discovered that they're usually more work than they're worth. So it will all be on the roads.

"I am gifted, I suppose, in the sense that I can walk and keep walking. Once I'm past day three or four it's just a case of thinking it's another 20 miles each day."

John hopes to raise £5,000 for Christian Aid from his gruelling solo effort.

Over the last 12 years he has led parties from St Aidan's Church in Roundhay (he moved to Otley two years ago but still worships in Leeds) on five pilgrimages, all longer than 200 miles.

The first one in the church's centenary year of 1994 was from Leeds to Holy Island, in Northumbria. Others included walks from Iona to Holy Island, Canterbury to York, and around the monasteries, abbeys and priories of Yorkshire.

He has so far raised more than £12,000 by walking. This time he plans to cover an average of 20 miles a day and to take only one weekend break in June, to freshen up at his Otley home.

Carrying just a small rucksack with some light clothing, he will stay with local vicars or parishioners on most nights of the trip.

He said: "I have always walked but the long-distance ones only started in 1994, after I'd walked a bit longer than usual and said to somebody it was the longest I'd ever done.

"Of the walks I've done so far, the shortest one was 187 miles and the one before last, which was around the abbeys and monasteries of North Yorkshire, was 306 miles - and right in the middle of the Foot and Mouth crisis.

"All but one of them were for Martin House, but this time it's for Christian Aid because it's their 60th anniversary this year.

"I thought I had just one more pilgrimage left in me even if it is four times as long as the previous ones!"

Anyone wishing to support John's effort for Christian Aid can send donations to the Reverend Canon Alan Taylor, St Aidan's Vicarage, Elford Place West, Leeds LS8 5QD, with cheques made out to St Aidan's PCC (Christian Aid).

Donations can also be made by visiting www.justgiving.com/landsendjohnogroats.