Edward's 2,600km challenge in 2016

And for once it means he is going to have to let his feet do the talking.

For several years he has embarked on fund-raising efforts for Pendleside Hospice in Reedley.

That has mainly been by taking part in events such as the Pendle Pub Walk and the Pennine Lancashire 10k road race.

But this year he has decided to take things a step further and as well as supporting Pendleside he will is also hoping to raise a good amount of money for Petal Childhood Cancer Research.

Petal started life as Ribble Valley and White Rose Ladies almost 20 years ago and was founded by Karen Weaving when she was the owner of the Stirk House Hotel in Gisburn.

In the years since then, Petal has raised almost £1.2m to support Cancer Research UK’s work with childhood cancers.

Last year Edward supported another Pendleside challenge. Keen runner and walker Graham Denney set out to cover 2015 kilometres of running and walking in 2015 and Edward chased him all the way.

This year Edward has decided to push that challenge further and has decided to try and run and walk 2,600 kilometres during the year.

Needed to average 50k a week, or just over 7k a day, he set out on New Year’s Day and walked off the first 13k.

Since then he has taken his total to well over 320k and is showing no signs of slowing down.

He explained: “I was inspired by Graham’s challenge last year. He had done a challenge each year for the last three and I decided it was my turn.

“Running and walking 50k a week seemed like a good challenge, but I did not not how achievable it would be.

“In January I escaped injury, illness and the worst of the weather and was delighted to clock up 255k.

“I knew I had to get ahead of target as soon as possible as I am bound to pick up an injury somewhere along the way and I know I will be out of action for at least two weeks in the summer.

“On top of that I also want to make sure that I am not trying to fit in a 10k run on Christmas morning to make sure that I have finished the challenge!”

Runs and walks all have to be at least 5k to count and all all logged on the Endomondo app so that people can track his progress.

As well as clocking up the 2,600k total, the challenge has several other strands.

Edward, who is 55 next week, has also pledged to walk both the Yorkshire Three Peaks and the Pendle Three Peaks as well as completing both the Pendle Way and the Burnley Way.

His schedule will once again include the Pendle Pub Walk and the Burnley 10k, the new name for the Pennine Lancashire 10k.

On top of that he will run a half marathon and take part in Petal’s Festival of Fun/Relay for Life at Demesne Farm, Paythorne, in September.

And he is organising a special event in April where people can walk or run a minimum of 10 laps of Seedhill Atheltics Track in Nelson as he attempts to see double the distance of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, some 254.5 miles, covered in 12-hours.

Follow his progress by liking his page at facebook.com/Ed’s 2016 Challenge or on Twitter @ChallengeEd16.

Donations can also be made by visiting uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EdwardLee3