With a 50k sack of coal on his back, Derek Burton and his faithful followers walked from Tregaron to Cardigan Rugby Club recently to raise money for Derek's nominated 2014 charity – the Lleucu Appeal. Lleucu, age seven, has been diagnosed with MPP syndrome and is only the seventh person in the world to have had this diagnosis.

' It was good and we had a lot fun together. We even danced part of the way,' chuckled one of the walkers, Sue Davies who has been supporting the fundraising walks since they started three years ago.

In 2012, a 10 mile walk was organised from Newcastle Emlyn to Cardigan for the now late Amanda Rogers. Last year the walk was organised from Carmarthen to Cardigan (a distance of 30 miles) for the Kieran Sabiston-Williams appeal and this year the money collected will be used to buy vital equipment for Lleucu, not currently available on the NHS.

The walk commenced from Llanddewi Brefi at 1pm on a Friday and the determined bunch of nearly 20 walkers, arrived in Cardigan at 3pm the following day having walked a full 26 hours including walking throughout the night, with Derek, supported by two of the Crompton brothers from Beulah and Alan Barton, striving hard to finish the gruelling task carrying the coal single handed.

' It did get hard from Newcastle Emlyn, I don't know why, but it was a struggle and maybe because we were so close to the finish. We also had quite a few blisters, but it was worth it,' added Sue.

Sketchy plans are afoot already for the 2015 walk, where Derek and another walker are expected to carry a sack of coal each over a distance of 100 miles.