Formula 1 fan's Ipswich-Barcelona hike for cancer charities

MOST British Formula 1 fans who wanted to see the Spanish Grand Prix on the Catalunya Circuit today (Sunday) would have booked themselves a flight – these days, relatively cheaply, and involving less than two-and-a-half hours in the air – but David Last from Ipswich, Suffolk, travelled there on foot.

Arriving in time for his 60^th birthday this weekend, it has taken David since March 27 – but the journey was worth it, he says.

David set off from the county capital of Suffolk at a cracking pace, with a daunting 1,348-kilometre hike ahead of him, and planned to reach Barcelona by this Wednesday, May 8.

His final thrust was to be a walk round the complete Catalunya Circuit.

The dates were set based upon an average distance covered of 31 to 40 kilometres a day, or 19 to 25 miles, and he has been training hard since October.

It's not about saving the cost of a flight, though: David's nephew's partner Hattie was diagnosed with breast cancer last year aged just 27, and he wants to raise £30,000 (about €34,500) for cancer charities.

He will split the funds equally between Breast Cancer Care, Trekstock and Caring For Me.

David told his local newspaper, the East Anglian Daily Times: “There have been so many...people I've known over the years who have been affected by all types of cancer, and I thought, what better thing could I do for my big birthday than to raise as much money as possible for some of the wonderful charities which help and support people?”

His trek took him south-west from Suffolk to East Sussex, where he took the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry crossing, before heading directly due south from Normandy to the Pyrénées via Limoges and Toulouse.

Wearing his 'Big Dave's Big Walk' T-shirt, the plucky motorsports fan has already been photographed on the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit's Twitter page, @Circuitcat_es (above).