A MOTHER and daughter from Swindon have completed a 25-hour walk along the South West Coast Path and raised around £300 for Parkinson’s UK.

Diane Charlesworth-Herbert, 47, and daughter Louise, 15, of Greenwich Close in Abbey Meads, set out from Studland in Dorset at 3.30pm on October 24.

With Diane’s husband Martin, 57, and their son Matthew, 13, in a support car following where possible, the pair arrived in Lulworth Cove some 25 miles away at 3.30pm the next day.

The most obvious psychological hurdle the pair had to overcome was walking the same hour twice when the clocks went back overnight.

With tiredness and the cold the biggest threats to their progress, they had chosen a weekend closest to a full moon to guide their way along the path through the night.

However, the low point came in the gap between the moon’s disappearance and the sun’s arrival, when temperatures plummeted and light evaded them.

With no light the pair lost the path and had to settled in for a period of sitting together for warmth and hoping the glints of dawn would guide them along their way again.

Tiredness had hit Louise earlier in the evening.

“It was 1am when the tiredness really hit my daughter. You could really tell it was affecting her speech, she was so tired, but she had a caffeine tablet and she was as bright as a button after that,” said Diane.

Diane said fatigue never became an issue for her, mainly because of her maternal instinct to look after Louise, but also due to a bull in the path which they came across in the dead of night.

They might have been out of sight and away from any witnesses, but that did not stop Diane doubling one of her sponsor’s contributions by singing ‘The Hills are Alive’ off the coast, as challenged by one friend.

This was filmed by Louise and duly delivered extra money for the charity, which they are supporting because of Diane’s mum’s diagnosis with the disease in 2013 at the age of 79.

With Louise home from her school, St Mary’s Calne, for the half-term break, they were able to reflect in the days after the walk on what they had achieved.

“There is still an element of slight disbelief. In the few days afterwards, while Louise was still home from school, we kept talking about it and reliving it,” said Diane.

“We were amazed we really did all that.”

Funds for the walk are still being collected at: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DianeCharlesworth-Herbert