A FISHGUARD Father has walked from Fishguard to St Davids and back in just a day and raised more than £6,000 for charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

Mervyn Hawkins decided to undergo the challenge in memory of his eldest daughter, Ellie, who died in her sleep on July 6 last year.

"Dad decided to do this challenging walk only a few months ago," said his daughter Georgia. "Something which would push him to his limit and it most definitely did."

"He decided to do something in memory of Ellie. We decided as a family to raise money for CRY as on average 12 young fit people die every single week of unknown cardiac problems. This charity helps raise awareness and tests test thousands of families."

Mervyn set off at 6am on Sunday, July 5, confident and full of energy, accompanied by his daughters to Fishguard Town Hall.

He reached St David's after an impressive three hours 45 minutes, ahead of schedule and going strong.

By Newgale the walk started to take its toll.

"His back started pulling and his feet were sore," said Georgia. "He plodded on as he knew mentally he could do it."

At Simpson Cross he was joined by his sister Suzanne She could see he was finding it hard and managed to get him a back-support belt which helped massively.

Mervyn reached Haverfordwest at 2.30pm and was applauded onto the home run by family members.

Heading for Fishguard and had plenty of support en-route and reached Scleddau at around 6.45pm where his daughters and niece joined him for the last two miles.

Mervyn made it into Fishguard at 7.15pm with a surprisingly large crowd cheering him on.

"Dad would like to thank every single person who kindly donated online and in person," said Georgia.

"His target was £3,000 but we have more than doubled that which is absolutely amazing.

"He also wants to thank his dad for following and providing the snacks, Emma for being the nurse on call and everyone who beeped, cheered, clapped and who showed their support on Facebook. It meant a lot.

"Dad has done everyone so proud but especially us girls," said Georgia. "He's one in a million. We are lucky to call him our dad and we know Ellie would be so proud."

To donate to Mervyn's walk and help CRY visit gofundme.com and search for walk in memory of daughter.