Emma Blackburn has raised £13,765 for the Isle of Man Air Ambulance Service by walking the entire coastline of the island in three days.

The Douglas woman undertook the challenge in memory of her brother William, who had served as a pilot with the service.

He was the co-pilot of a light aircraft which crashed in Dubai in 2019.

The air ambulance service consists of one plane based at Ronaldsway which is specially outfitted and dedicated to transporting patients who need specialist care in the UK.

Emma told us that she felt that the two-year anniversary of his death would be an appropriate time to do something like this, and the week of the challenge also fell on his birthday.

In total, Emma and her friend Maddie Landels hiked more than 95 miles, in three legs of the Raad-Ny-Foillan coastal footpath.

Emma told us that she was sure that the first stretch, from Port St Mary to Peel, was looking like it would be the hardest - as they dealt with a whole day of ’torrential rain’ and flooded trails combined with the steep terrain of the path in the area around Fleshwick Bay.

Despite the impossibility of keeping their shoes dry to prevent blisters, Emma said she did not consider postponing the trek, saying: ’I think the fact we did it in that weather, it helped us to raise more money because people felt bad for us.’

However, after spending the night in Kirk Michael it was the second day, walking 35 miles along the beaches to Dhoon, which she counted as the most difficult, particularly mentally.

’Because the north is very sandy, constantly walking on the beach drains you - also you can’t see anything for miles, and the wind was blowing sand into our faces,’ Emma said.

’I honestly don’t think I realised how much of a challenge it was going to be -I thought "We’re both fit, we’re both healthy, we can smash this".

’But it was [challenging] weather, and the [Raad-Ny-Foillan] isn’t very well signposted either, so you’re constantly having to look at a map.’

Some of the scenic highlights included the walk between Maughold to Laxey, which Emma described as ’absolutely stunning’, and also Glen Maye to Peel up the back of Peel Hill.

The last day, from Dhoon to arriving in Port St Mary (after 8pm), they were driven by the motivation of being on the final leg, as well as the updates from her family about how much money was being raised.

’[When we finished] I was just buzzing, but I felt like I could carry on - but then I stopped for about five minutes and I was in so much pain.’

She told us that they needed to set quite a brisk pace to finish it in three days, and that she doesn’t think they would have been able to complete it in less.

Emma concluded: ’It just felt the right thing to do [raising money for the service], because William was such a caring person - [it was good to] give something back and honour him.’

People can still donate at: www.gofundme.com/f/isle-of-man-air-ambulance.