Eighty-year old Freda Black has raised £3,000 for three charities by walking the Raad-ny-Foillan around the island.

The former Onchan School teacher chose Cancer Research, Crossroads Care and the British Heart Foundation - the latter because her husband died of a heart attack.

We previously reported Ms Black’s completion of the walking challenge, which she undertook in sections, and she is now thanking all those who donated - many of whom were anonymous.

Being interested in nature, one of her favourite stretches of the coastal footpath were the parts between Maughold and Cornaa, where she was able to see ’big, fat grey seals on the rocks’ (which she had never seen before in the island) as well as oyster catchers and gannets.

She said that she had always planned on doing the walk one day, and after deciding to do it for charity following this year’s lockdown that she ’didn’t expect’ the response she got in donations.

’I’ve been involved with girl-guiding for 30 years, and I always used to set challenges for my guides - so I thought I should be able to do this challenge myself.

’It was my 80th birthday challenge.’

As for the most difficult parts of the walk, Ms Black said these were the steep gradients descending into Fleshwick’, and then coming out of there as well.

’Going up is hard work, but you also have to watch your step going down as well,’ she said.

’I broke my ankle a few years back, and I did not want a repeat of that, certainly not out there.’

The longest section she undertook in one go was from the Point of Ayre to the Dog Mills, which involved around 24,000 steps.

Another long stretch was the popular walk between Peel and Niarbyl.

However, Ms Black found many of the Raad-ny-Foillan’s paths difficult to walk, due to their being overgrown with ferns. A select committee has been formed on the issue of footpath maintenance - see page five.