Fyvie school staff member completes virtual Land's End to John O'Groats challenge
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A staff member at Fyvie Primary School has completed a virtual walking challenge which has seen her cover the distance from Land's End to John O'Groats.
Diane Watt, who is the school's administrator, set herself the challenge on January to walk the 874 miles over the course of the year.
However, she has managed to complete her target with eight months to spare.
As part of the challenge she is raising money for Cancer Research UK.
She said: "I saw the challenge on Facebook back in December to walk virtually from Land's End to John O'Groats.
"It said you could take the whole year to do it, so I started on January 1.
"I did plan on taking the whole year to do it, but once I started walking I kept setting myself targets to reach each month.
"So each month I would aim to do more miles and once we got into March and the light nights I set myself the target of 280 miles and then the same distance in April, which would finish the challenge.
"I managed to reach the target in March and then because I had done it in such a quick time I decided to set up the Just Giving page for charity.
"I chose Cancer Research because it is something that is close to a lot of people's hearts and everybody knows somebody that has been affected by the disease.
"I had a really close friend who passed away due to cancer five years ago."
The April holidays saw Diane continue to clock up the miles and she aimed to complete the challenge by April 30 but she managed to finish it five days early.
Her walks were mainly in the Cross of Jackston area where she lives and was accompanied a lot of the time by her dog Skye.
To mark the completion of her challenge the school held a special event for Diane.
It saw her cross a specially made finish line and pupils and staff were able to congratulate her on the achievement.
"I had no idea the event was happening, so it was a real surprise," she added.
"I went out a walk with a teacher during lunch time and when we came back I could hear the cheering and the song 500 miles was playing. It was really nice of them to do that.
"I have had great support from everybody at the school.
"I will continue to keep on walking and I have just seen a new virtual challenge going from John O'Groats back to Land's End, so I may come back down the country."
Anyone who would like to donate to Diane's fundraising can visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diane-watt74
