A dedicated dad has raised more than £6,000 for the hospital unit which cared for his premature child after completing a 73-mile walk in less than day.

Dubbed the Tiny Toes Trek, Jon Whetlor and a team of friends walked from his birthplace in west London to the William Harvey to raise money for the East Kent Hospitals Charity.

It was predicted to take 26 hours but Jon completed it an impressive 23 hours and 20 minutes.

He set up the fundraising challenge to raise money for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which cared for his daughter Matilda after she born prematurely weighing just over a pound.

Jon and a team of friends set off from the Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge at 10am on Saturday October, 20.

His friends decided to end the challenge early as after 50 miles of constant walking, the tiredness had become to much to bear.

But Mr Whetlor was determined to complete the trek and faced the remaining 20 miles alone.

He arrived at the Harvey on Sunday, October, 21 at 9.20am.

The builder, who lives in Sevington, said: "Thinking about everything my daughter and all the premature babies out there have been through kept me going through the dark times.

"I never let the doubt set into my mind that I wasn’t going to make it."

Callum Jones, who lives in Portsmouth, found out Mr Whetlor was walking alone and drove to Kent to help him complete the walk.

The fundraiser has raised more than £6,500 for charity, exceeding the original target of £3,000.

Mr Whetlor added: "This was by far the toughest challenge of my life and it was all so worth it as we've raised thousands for such an amazing charity and a wonderful team of people who I will be forever grateful for caring for our little Matilda.

"I would like to thank my team Jody Dalton, Josh Dalton, James Sayers, Adam Casey, Adam Goodman, Stuart Scoates and Stevie Denton for all their efforts and support and my dad Jim Whetlor and Bob Sayers for driving the camper support vehicle for 24 hours and keeping the team going throughout the challenge."

n Mr Whetlor's JustGiving page will be kept open during the lead up to Christmas.

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