WALKERS followed in Roman footsteps and faced battles with the elements as they conquered Hadrian's Wall to care for wild animals in a sanctuary many thousands of miles away in Africa.

Bev Gilston-Hope has returned from spending her Easter break with 10 friends walking 84 miles in five days to raise money for the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia, where she worked as a volunteer.

And over the five days, the group may have experienced pain, tears and exhaustion, they also — just like Bev did in Namibia — had lots of laughs, saw some wonderful things with close friendships becoming stronger.

The gruelling hike was organised after Bev returned from a three-week trip and was telling her friends about her African adventure and wanting to do something to support the sanctuary.

Bev, aged 50, who lives in Bromley Cross, described the walk as the hardest thing she had ever done, especially as she undertook it with a knee injury.

She said: "It was a lot harder than we had anticipated. The first 20 miles was exhausting but we were still up beat. Day three was the hardest physically as we were going over all the hills. Despite climbing the hills for two hours I still felt great, and when we got to the bottom we thought we had done 19 miles and had done 15 miles, that's when I cried. My knee was swollen and every mile was agony."

But thanks to the encouragement of walkers including Paul Taylor and Lisa Bunting all the group managed to finish the trek.

Bev said: "Paul dropped back to help my Dutch friend who was struggling on a long stretch with Namibia and gave her the full history of England.

"The real star for me was Luke Bradbury who did the whole walk with us refusing to get in the car. I kept going because of Luke. He was amazing."

Bev said: "Some of the hardest days were some of the best. The third day might have been hard but we say all the famous sites that are pictured at the wall and seeing the views was really inspiring.

"We may have been in the depths of despair but we had some fantastic laughs. The weather was unbelievable, it stayed good throughout the five days and just started raining when we got to Newcastle."

The group actually ended up walking 90 miles in total due to a few detours.

Bev said: "When we got to Newcastle we just felt brilliant and had champagne and went to the Hilton spa."

The group had set themselves a target for raising £4,000 for the sanctuary which cares for more than 120 animals, from leopards, cheetahs and lions, to African wild dogs, baboons and meerkats.

But after the effort the whole group put in and the selflessness shown, especially by Luke, the target has now been raised to £5,000.

To support the group's cause visit Support the team at mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beverlygilston-hope1

https://mydonate.bt.com/teams/laughwhileyouhikers