Two trekkers have raised more than £25,000 for the Ricky Casey Trust after walking from Plymouth to Oldham in memory of a friend who died of a rare kidney cancer.

Lee McAllister and Paul 'Ratty' Ratcliffe completed the 560-kilometre walk in 10 days, arriving at Springhead Football Club on Saturday, August 22 to a welcome from more than 300 people.

The pair walked 10km for each year of Ricky Casey's life, roughly 380 miles in total, travelling from football stadium to football stadium in his honour. Ricky, who was a fireman and devout Manchester United fan, died in 2019 aged 49 from renal medullary carcinoma (RMC), a rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer. He would have been 56 this year.

After Ricky's death, his wife Nicola founded the Ricky Casey Trust, the UK's first dedicated RMC charity. It works with patients, doctors and supporters around the world to raise awareness of the disease and fundraises for research, medical equipment and treatment for individual patients.

"I'm just feeling a sense of relief more than anything else," Lee said. "You can see how many people are here and how many have contributed towards the charity, so it's a relief to make it. There were times during the walk where we thought we might not be able to do it because of how difficult of a challenge it was."

He said the aim had been to raise money and that it was amazing to see so many people come and give their support.

Paul recalled stopping at a bed and breakfast in a remote area after a 10-mile walk. They had not seen anyone for two hours, then came across an old church building where two people were having a barbecue. He went over with two bottles of water to fill up, and after they asked about the charity, a woman collected money from everyone and gave them a couple of hundred pounds.

"It was a bit mad seeing them both in real life," said Nicola. "We had a really emotional walk up from Manchester United's ground, then called in at Rick's fire station on the way home - they've still got all his stuff in there."

"Rick was quite well known for sitting on the couch with his remote control, so they've sprayed the remote control gold and put it beside the TV. They've got a plaque that you'd normally get when you retire, and they've done a calendar. I've not been in the station since Rick was ill, so it was quite a big thing really. I thought I'd be fine, but it was so emotional."

The welcome event featured a DJ, late bar, bouncy castle and a live performance from the Two Connors. Nicola said she could not believe how many people turned out. "I can't believe there are that many here. This is the first charity event since Rick passed away, and even when he was poorly and had big events, it's always rained. It's rained every single event, and now it's sunny. Maybe things are changing - do you know what I mean?"