Keswick man takes on 'Route A66' to raise money for charity

  • Video report by Fiona Marley Patterson.

A man from Keswick is walking alongside the A66 from Workington to Middlesbrough raising thousands of pounds for charity.

For safety reasons he's not following the exact road, but taking to quieter side lanes on areas of the route where there are no footpaths.

Alan Dunn was supposed to take on Route 66, but coronavirus put a stop to his plans. Hr told ITV Border: "As plan B I've got a pal who's got a trike and he suggested we do the A66 and I thought well that's a good idea, it's a bit of fun isn't it?

"But it's not a challenge, so I thought Keswick Lions have lost our beer festival this year, which brings in a huge amount of money and we managed to get through foot and mouth but this corona - the lockdown - has caused us not to have it.

"The club gets normally about between £25,000 and £30,000 a year from it and I thought just maybe to try and get maybe a thousand pounds would be a contribution to the loss of the income."

Alan originally wanted to take on the world-famous Route 66, but Covid stopped his plans. Credit: PA

He thought he'd raise only one thousand pounds. But he's on four thousand and counting. "I'm flabbergasted, if that's the word? Delighted obviously. There's some people been very generous to us."

It's not quite the Route 66 he'd planned for his 66th birthday. But there's a lot of laughs in his mock 66. And now he's raising money for the Lions it means a lot more.