A MAN has completed a 408-mile charity walk to raise much-needed funds for a community radio station.

Asa Taulbut, 36, walked from his home in London to Durham, raising £3,000 for Durham Hospitals Radio.

He arrived in the region on Friday after 23 days, completing some 850,000 steps along the way on the walk he dubbed Home From Home.

Mr Taulbut averaged 20 miles a day, pounding the footpaths and B roads up the east coast for around 12 hours a day.

Originally from Durham, he now lives and works in the capital as an artist and film maker.

He wanted to give something back to the University Hospital of North Durham which cared for his mother, Lori, before she died from breast cancer in 2007.

His father, Tony, is an engineer at the hospital radio station, which costs around £2,000 a year to run and is staffed by volunteers.

Mr Taulbut, who stayed with friends, strangers, as well as in hotels, bed and breakfasts, and one night in a shed, said: “It has been an incredible personal journey for me. I have wanted to do it for years.

“It seemed right as I have lived in London for 18 years and Durham for 18 years.

“I am relived it is over now. It changed the way I thought as I did not listen to music or podcasts.

“It was a strange thing just to think about the act of walking for 12 to 16 hours a day without thinking about anything else.

“I just focussed on my footsteps and listening to the world.

“It is quite meditative.”